Mango Panna Cotta

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This layered mango panna cotta is an absolutely delicious yet easy to put together dessert. A perfect way to use mangoes during summer and wow your guests.

Mango panna cotta with recipe video

I love panna cotta as a dessert. It is an easy to put together dessert, and always loved by everyone. What’s not to love- a luscious creamy pudding that you can prep in advance. Plus, it tastes great with fresh ripe fruits like strawberries, cherries, peaches and in this case mango.

Panna cotta is also easily adaptable to fit many dietary restrictions. It is gluten free in its most simple form, and with a few easy dairy replacements can be made vegan too.

So, what is Panna Cotta?

Panna cotta is an italian dessert, made from warming cream just enough to dissolve sugar and gelatin. It is served chilled, and is super easy to make. Panna cotta can be a very light, soft pudding using milk and fruit puree, or a rich, thick pudding using mostly cream. The basic core ingredients are inexpensive, and yet it tastes luxurious and looks beautiful.

Wikipedia cites the origins of panna cotta to a Hungarian woman in the early 1900s, though there is also a mention of a dish in an 1879 dictionary made of cream cooked with gelatin and molded. Whatever the origins, panna cotta is one dessert you should have in your recipe cards.

How do you make Panna Cotta?

Many are under the wrong impression that panna cotta is a complicated dessert. It isn’t. There are very few steps in the preparation of panna cotta, and the only way you can screw up is if you don’t dissolve the gelatin properly.

The steps to make panna cotta are pretty simple.

  • Warm the cream in a saucepan.
  • Add sugar, and heat the cream till the sugar dissolves. (Here is when you can get creative by infusing the cream with vanilla beans, or different spices or adding coffee or any other flavor)
  • While you are warming up the cream, soften the gelatin in a cold liquid.
  • Once the gelatin blooms, you add that to the warm cream mixture, making sure there are no lumps.
  • This mixture is then poured into molds, and allowed to set.
  • You can serve the panna cotta in the molds itself, or unmold and top it with your favorite toppings. Fresh fruit makes a lovely pairing with the creamy panna cotta.

The hardest part about making panna cotta is achieving the proper consistency and texture—it should be silky smooth and just firm, with a gentle wobble. Getting the cream to gelatin ratio helps in that. For every cup of cream, 3/4 tsp-1 tsp gelatin is the ideal ratio to get a good texture.

Mango panna cotta with recipe video

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Kale Pizza on Whole wheat crust

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Kale pizza on whole wheat crust with a basil kale pesto sauce and double cheese topping. A healthy yet delicious take on pizza.

I have mentioned in a previous post, one of our main finds of this lockdown has been Kale. I previously shared a recipe of Kale and quinoa salad. That post has in detail the benefits of kale, where to source it in Delhi and more.

Another favorite way of using Kale during the lockdown and subsequent unlockdown has been this Kale Pizza on whole wheat crust.

I tried the Kale Pizza recipe for the first time during the first week of lockdown. That time Anubhav’s brother was also staying with us, and unanimously it was agreed that the pizza was a flavor bomb. This coming from people who order meat lovers pizza ALWAYS. Since then I have made this recipe for Kale Pizza a couple of times, and each time we have enjoyed it.

This Kale Pizza would give any non vegetarian pizza topping a run for its money. I got the idea of the kale pizza from here. The drizzle of balsamic vinegar on top, the sweetness that the oven roasted cherry tomatoes lend, plus the creaminess of the goat cheese and mozzarella combined with the earthiness of Kale, makes this Kale pizza so so good!

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Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

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These gluten free chocolate cupcakes are the perfect indulgent treat. They are a healthier alternative to the regular chocolate cupcakes. Almond flour makes these cupcakes gluten free and their natural fat and nutty flavor adds depth, flavor and richness to the final product, while lending extra moisture to the baked good. 

Gluten free chocolate cupcakes

After gluten free brownies, I am here with a gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe. The recipe is adapted from Foolproof Living here, and its a keeper. I did replace some of the almond flour with oat flour. Also, I used regular sugar as maple syrup is more difficult to get and super expensive in India, though I am sure maple syrup would be a great addition too. Since I used regular sugar and did reduce the amount, I compensated it with a little extra liquid to keep the cupcakes moist.

I would love to try these with dates for the sweetness and some orange zest the next time I try them. Will update when I do 🙂

Store bought Vs Homemade Almond Flour

Since almond flour is super expensive, I have started making almond flour at home. It does require certain pre preparation. You need to blanch the almonds, remove the peel, let the almonds dry and then dry grind them on pulse to get a fine powder. Once you sift the powder, the fine flour you get is almond flour that you can use to bake cakes and cookies.

The reason why I use oat flour in both the gluten free brownies recipe and these gluten free chocolate cupcakes is so that I can fine grind any leftover unsifted almond flour. This way all of the blanched almonds is used in a single recipe.

You could of course make these gluten free chocolate cupcakes with store bought almond flour, but then what’s the fun in that. Also storage for nut flours is critical to avoid rancidity. You need to keep your almond flour either in the refrigerator or freezer, and since I am always struggling with refrigerator space, making one recipe portion almond flour at home, helps me avoid storing store bought almond flour problems.

Store bought almond flour is of course finer but having a powerful and reliable grinder or food processor makes it easy to get fine almond flour results at home too. I use my Hamilton Beach JMG for it, and although slightly expensive its one of my most used kitchen equipment. In collaboration with them I also made a video for making these cupcakes, and you can watch it here on my instagram.

 

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