Valentine’s Bay Panna Cotta with Cardamom Syrup

This easy to make Bay Panna Cotta with Cardamom Syrup is a delicious dessert for Valentine’s Day or any day in between.

With a subtle aromatic taste and beautiful velveteen texture, it’s a sublime after-dinner treat.

A wonderful digestive soother with the collagen, bay and cardamon.

This is a great way to introduce collagen using the gelatin granules in this recipe. See all the benefits here of this unique protein, and why I like to incorporate in to my daily diet.

Ingredients

• 125ml organic whole milk
• 375ml organic double cream
• 80g caster sugar
• ½ vanilla pod
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons of gelatin
• a little mild olive oil to grease the ramekin or heart mold

The Cardamom Syrup

• 60g granulated sugar
• 6 cardamom pods, crushed

Method

Add the milk, cream and sugar to a saucepan along with the half vanilla pod, seeds scraped out and added alongside. Add the bay leaves. Slowly bring the milk to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat. Put a lid on top and leave to infuse for 1 hour.

In the meantime add the 2 teaspoons of gelatin to a small bowl with 3 tablespoons of cold water. Stir and leave to ‘bloom’. This take about 10 minutes.

Strain the infused milk through a sieve into another pan. On a low heat add the gelatin, stirring until dissolved.

Pour in to desired mold, dividing equally. I ended up with 6 but in bigger ramekins you may just have 4.

Place on a tray and put in to the fridge for at least 4 hours.

To make syrup just crush the cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar. Place in to a small saucepan with the sugar and 60ml of water. Warm up gently until the sugar dissolves and leave to cool. Strain when ready to use.

To serve I dip the bottom of the mold briefly in to hot water to ease turning out of the dessert. Put on a plate, decorate with rose petals and lemon zest with a little drizzle of cardamon syrup.

(Original recipe Angela Clutton, slightly tweaked.)

You might also like this Pineapple Panna Cotta.