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As part of our Valentine’s Day dinner, I made Panna Cotta with a Pomegranate Glaze. (Looks like it becomes a tradition that I would make some sort of dessert on Vday. This is the 3rd year in a row!) This dessert is very easy to make and is perfect for amateur cooks. It doesn’t need a glaze but it looks and tastes better with a sauce. I chose pomegranate as the base of my glaze because of its colour – the red/purple-ish colour was appropriate for the occasion – but you can substitute it with other glaze such as passion fruit and mango.  I also used an ice cream glass instead of ramekin, but for your reference, each serving is approximately 200 ml.

Panna Cotta

Ingredients

Ingredients for Panna Cotta

• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin powder
• 2 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Pour skim milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, stir together the half-and-half cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk mixture into the cream, stir until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stir constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into six individual ice cream glasses.
3. Cool the glasses, uncovered, at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, before serving.

Waiting for panna cotta to cool and set

Pomegranate Glaze

Ingredients

• 20g granulated sugar
• 275ml pomegranate juice

Preparation

1. Heat up a dry frying pan. Tip the sugar into the hot pan immediately followed by the pomegranate juice. At medium heat, bring to a boil and allow to bubble for 15-20 minutes, or until thickened to a syrupy glaze. Pour into a small jug and leave to cool completely.
2. Pour the cooled pomegranate glaze on top of the chilled panna cotta.

The tricky part is how far you should reduce your pomegranate juice. A friend of mine tried the same recipe and over-glazed the juice. So by the time the glaze was cooled, the wooden spoon was stuck to the pan, where the glaze was left to cool. Ours took about 20 minutes at medium heat, but it may vary depending on the temperature of your stove. Just watch carefully – once it reaches to a point where it’s kind of syrupy, turn off the heat. The glaze will continue to cook and thicken for a bit before it starts to cool.

Enjoy!

Panna Cotta with Pomegranate Glaze