Yuzu Panna Cotta
This past Mother’s Day, we made Yuzu Panna Cotta as our Italian-Japanese fusion dessert for our respective mothers. We were inspired to make this dessert because a friend of ours recently had this dessert when she was travelling abroad and it sounded so good that we decided to recreate it.
This Yuzu Panna Cotta recipe is actually very easy to make and only requires a few ingredients. However, yuzu juice is not a common ingredient that is easily accessible. We bought ours at a specialty Japanese grocery store but you can easily replace yuzu juice with another citrus fruit of your choice such as lemon or lime juice.
What is Yuzu?
Yuzu is a fragrant citrus fruit that is often used in Japanese cuisine. It looks very similar to a lemon, but has a flavour profile that is a cross between lemon, orange, and grapefruit.
What is Panna Cotta?
Panna Cotta is a popular chilled Italian dessert made of cream, milk, sugar, and gelatin. It can be made in any mold of your choice and also served with any fruit topping of your choice. It’s an extremely versatile dessert with a silky smooth texture.
How to Make Yuzu Panna Cotta
1. Bloom your gelatin – In a small bowl, add 1 tsp of gelatin powder with 2 tbsp of water. Stir gently and wait 10 minutes for the gelatin to bloom.
2. Prepare Panna Cotta mixture – In a small pot over low-medium heat, add your cream, milk, and sugar and bring to a gentle simmer. Whisk to ensure the sugar is all melted and there is no gritty texture is left. Whisk in the yuzu juice quickly and vigourosly to prevent curdling. Finally, add in the bloomed gelatin and whisk until the gelatin is all melted. Turn off the heat.
3. Set in mold – Allow the mixture to cool slightly before setting it in the mold of your choice. For us, we used these silicone dome molds. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
4. Serve – We served our Yuzu Panna Cotta alongside a fresh scoop of strawberry ice cream and a sprinkle of pie crust soil for added texture. Add some fresh fruit for added color and voila!
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Yuzu Panna Cotta
Ingredients
- 150 ml heavy cream
- 50 ml 2% milk
- 60 g sugar
- 1 tsp of gelatine powder
- 2 tbsp water
- 40ml / 1/6 cup Yuzu juice
Instructions
- 1. In a small bowl, add 1 tsp of gelatin powder and 2 tbsp of water. Stir gently and wait 10 minutes for the gelatin to bloom.
- 2. In a small pot over low-medium heat, add the milk, cream and sugar. Stir gently until the sugar melts. You should be able to tell when all the sugar is melted when there is no longer a gritty texture on the bottom of the pan. The mixture should not be boiling but rather, at a gentle simmer at most.
- 3. Add the yuzu juice and whisk vigorously to prevent curdling. Then, add the bloomed gelatin into the pot and whisk until the gelatin is thoroughly dissolved. Once dissolved, turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- 4. Pour your panna cotta mixture into a mold of your choice. Refrigerate until the mixture is set.
- 5. We used a silicone mold and found it easier to remove the panna cotta after freezing it for about an hour. Once removed, you can keep it in a container lined with parchment paper to prevent it from sticking. You can store in the fridge until ready to serve. This can be stored in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
- 6. When ready to serve, you can add the pie crust soil for added texture and contrast the tart taste of the panna cotta with a bit of the salty pie crust soil. You could also serve it alongside some ice cream of your choice. For us, we served with Strawberry ice cream.
