If you ask me “what’s the easiest dessert to make?”, I’d say agar agar (jelly) or panna cotta! You can’t really go wrong with either one. The key is to dissolve the gelatin completely so the dessert will set.

Panna cotta, which means “cooked cream” in Italian, is one of my favourite dolci and after I made it the first time, I realised it’s such a fun and easy dish to make and yet looks impressive. The best part is I can be creative with this ‘blank canvas creamy pudding’ by toying with all kinds of flavours and toppings such as coffee, chocolate, seasonal fruits, coconut milk, etc.

My last panna cotta was made with Italian caffe, topped with Chocolate Kit Kat. For this recipe, I was inspired by the sweet plump blueberries in season from Oregon Blueberry Growers (available from Fairprice or Redmart). I also had some leftover mascarpone cheese so I whipped up a blueberries mascarpone cream and topped the panna cotta with delish blueberries yogurt Pocky sticks, blue pea flowers and blueberries of course! 🫐

Ingredients:

Fresh milk - 1/2 cup

Whipping cream - 2 cups

Gelatin powder - 3 teaspoons (I got mine from Redman)

White sugar - 75g (3 heaped tablespoons)

Pinch of salt

Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Blueberries for garnishes

Blue pea flowers for colouring and garnishes - optional

For the Blueberries Mascarpone Cream:

Blueberries - 3/4 cup

Fresh milk - 1/2 cup

White sugar - 2 tablespoons

Mascarpone cheese - 3 tablespoons

Method:

- Blend the blueberries with milk and sugary to get a fine purée. Set aside a big tablespoon of purée for the panna cotta. Stir the rest of the purée into the mascarpone and chill it for use later.

- Stir the gelatin in the milk for a minute before placing the pot on the stove on low to medium heat.

- Add the whipping cream, tablespoon of blueberries purée, sugar, salt and vanilla essence to the pot. Optional: I added some blue pea flowers (but not enough though) for a pale blue colouring.

- Stir the mixture for 4 to 5 mins until the gelatin dissolves completely (very important!) and the mixture is steaming but not boiling. Remove from heat and let it cool down a bit before straining the mixture into individual cups.

- They will set fully after 4 hours or overnight in the fridge. The consistency is like silky soy beancurd or pudding. To serve, top the panna cotta with a tablespoon of blueberries mascarpone cream, fresh blueberries, blue pea flowers and the blueberries yogurt Pocky stick.

*Tip:

- You can go crazy with the basic panna cotta pudding by flavouring the milk and cream. For eg replace the fresh milk with coconut milk and flavoured / coloured with blended Pandan leaf juice. Sweeten with gula melaka instead of sugar and top with cooked red beans and chendol jelly for a local twist!

Recipe courtesy of Carlyn Law, Eattodraw.com