Receta Dessert Recipe | Strawberry Yogurt Panna Cotta with Grape Compote – A Healthy Treat
A bowl of creamy wobbly Panna Cotta soaked in juicy fresh fruit compote is a best bet for an easy, quick and exotic dessert for any day! Panna Cotta means “cooked cream’ in Italian and this simple dessert is served with caramel, chocolate sauce or any fruit compote. Compote is a sort of thickened sweet sauce cooked with stewed fresh or dried fruits mainly berries in sugar.
It is really hard to switch over from the incredibly addictive cream based panna cotta with yogurt and coconut milk. But then a look at the health benefits of yogurt and coconut makes it a wiser decision to do so. Panna Cotta cooked with coconut milk which I make often takes the recipe to different levels. I made two batches, the one set in the ramekins are with cream & yogurt combo and the other in the glass is just plain yogurt panna cotta. And no, I did not miss the creamy culprit from my recipe
Never thought I will be regularly making my own versions of healthy Panna cotta replacing the most part of cream from the ingredient list with yogurt.
To give more creamy and rich texture to this Strawberry Yogurt Panna Cotta with Grape Compote, I started adding a tablespoon of milk powder before setting the yogurt for the recipe. This helps set a firm and creamy yogurt. I like using China grass or agar-agar than the stinky gelatin as a setting agent in my recipes.
Strawberry Yogurt Panna Cotta
Ingredients;
(serve 4)
- 2 cup yogurt/curd
- ½ cup cream
- ½ cup powder sugar
- ½ cup crushed strawberries
- 2 tsp. china grass
- 2 tbsp. cold milk
Method; Whisk the cream with a fork for a few minutes till it becomes soft and fluffy. Wash & hull the strawberries and crush them with a fork.
Thick Yogurt or Curd; To make thick yogurt, dissolve 2 tbsp. of powder milk in 2 cups of warm milk and and add the culture or a teaspoon of set curd in it. Leave it for 8-10 hours to set. You can also strain the set yogurt to drain the whey (liquid) from it in a muslin cloth for a few hours.
Sprinkle china grass over the bowl of cold milk and let it stand for a few minutes. Boil the milk with china grass till it is dissolved.
You can also add cream to the milk and china grass mixture and boil it for a minute, I avoided this step as I did not want to cook the cream. Diverting slightly from the origin of Panna Cotta (cooked cream).. Huh..;-)
Cool it slightly and add it to the yogurt.
Add the yogurt mixture, powder sugar and crushed strawberries in the whipped cream and fold it lightly till all the ingredients are mixed.
Grease 4 ramekins or any other mold you want to set the Panna Cotta in. Place a Pour the liquid quickly into the ramekins.
Took a scoop before I could even pour the compote
Refrigerate the ramekins for about an hour to set the Panna Cotta completely. Serve with fresh fruit sauce or compote of your choice.
Relish the Strawberry yogurt panna cotta straight from the ramekin or de mold it and dig in..
Grape Compote
Ingredients;
2 cups purple/red/black grapes
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. orange/lemon zest (optional)
Method;Wash and crush the grapes with hands or blend it in a liquidizer for a few seconds. Do not blend the grapes completely, let there be some pulp in the compote.
Add sugar and zest if using in the crushed grapes and use it as fresh fruit sauce to garnish the Panna cotta or follow this recipe to make thick compote.
Heat a pan and pour the grape and sugar mixture let it simmer for 2 minutes. Cool it and use the compote.
To make thick compote, dissolve a tsp. of cornflour in 1 tbsp. of water and add to the liquid, simmer it for another 1 minute and take off the flame.
Phew..too wobbly..succeeded in it taking out..
Place a slice of strawberry at the base of the ramekin before pouring the liquid to get the above look. De mold the Panna Cotta carefully as it will be very wobbly and might break sometimes.
Cool the grape compote and spoon it over the strawberry panna cotta just before serving.
The crunchy bits of grapes give a wonderful texture to the compote in Strawberry Yogurt Panna Cotta with Grape Compote recipe. Use fresh blackberries or blueberries for the same for a different taste.
Notes;
Panna cotta made with yogurt without any cream tasted just delightful as the one with cream. The panna cotta set in the glass is with thick yogurt minus cream.
Blend the strawberries with yogurt if you don’t like chunks of fruit in your dessert.
If using granulated sugar, add the sugar in the milk which is used to set the curd.
Use honey in place of sugar in both the recipes.
Make sure to use seedless black/purple.red California grapes. They are sweet and have very thin peel and will require less sugar in the compote recipe.
Any fruit jam could be used to garnish the panna cotta. Make the jam little runny by adding a few teaspoons of plain water.