Classic panna cotta is such a creamy, delightful dessert. In this variation, the creamy sweetness of white chocolate and the tropical freshness of coconut pair beautifully with the citrusy sweetness of hibiscus syrup.
White chocolate panna cotta (with a touch of molecular gastronomy)
I put on my fancy pants for this one. This was one of my attempts at plating something fancy. Not really sure how well it came off. What do you guys think? One thing’s for sure though. This tasted fancy as hell! One of the stars in this recipe – hibiscus – is nowhere to be found where I live now (although occasionally I might come across candied hibiscus in one of the local grocery stores – but that’s not really what I’m going for and I wanted to make hibiscus tea anyway). A couple of weeks ago however we ventured out to St. Louis and stopped by an International grocery store where we came across some beautiful Hibiscus and Chamomile! My husband wasn’t entirely convinced though when I told him what I was going to do with the hibiscus. Mostly because he had never tried it before and didn’t know what to expect! 🙂 The mad scientist in me however was going nuts thinking about the possibilities! I was about to put a Molecular Gastronomy technique called Reverse Spherification to the test with this one and I was giddy! I had already tried and loved Basic Spherification (check out my post on lychee cocktail with raspberry caviar for some facts on that). As it turned out, reverse spherification is my favourite! Hands down! Although my first attempt at it was a complete bust (I tried it with rock melon), this one worked beautifully. Man if I could, I would’ve done back flips!
How to unmold this dessert
When you’re unmolding the white chocolate panna cotta, remember to run a warm, clean, thin knife along the edges and let gravity do its work. The membrane of the spheres/pearls is thicker here compared to those made with basic spherification. Therefore, unlike in basic spherification, you kind of feel the membrane in your mouth and the bursting of it. This is in no way a turn off though. In fact, it’s super fun! Haha! Unlike in basic spherification, the gel membrane here forms outside the liquid sphere. What that means is, the gel membrane here is made of a different solution (sodium alginate solution) compared to the liquid sphere inside (which is made of the calcium lactate solution). I call this process, outward gelification. The longer you keep the spheres in the sodium alginate bath, the thicker that gel membrane is going to be. The gelification stops as soon as you remove the sphere from the alginate bath. Since the gel membrane is made of sodium alginate, I like to add some sugar (or some other flavour), to give that gel membrane some sweetness as well. Otherwise the membrane will have a neutral taste. Since these spheres will continue to have a liquid center (with no inward gelification unlike in basic spherification), you can store these in solution (a solution that is the same as the inside of the sphere, but without calcium lactate) for longer. This will also help flavour the membrane. You can create spheres with any kind of liquid in reverse spherification (acidic or basic). However the liquid needs to be thick – like a runny yoghurt consistency. However the liquid can also be frozen and then spherified – this is called frozen spherification! You can easily get whatever liquid to have that consistency using Xanthan gum. Reverse spherification does require some preparation. The sodium alginate bath and calcium lactate solution need to be rested for at least 12 hours, preferably 24 hours to remove the bubbles. I only let the solutions rest for about 12 hours, which is why you can see air bubbles in my spheres. If there are too many air bubbles in the solutions, the drops you add to the sodium alginate bath will not sink to the bottom to form spheres. This is why that resting time is important for the solutions. With this Cusine R-Evolution kit (that you can enter to win with this giveaway), you get the sodium alginate, calcium lactate, the pipettes, slotted spoon and measuring spoons! The only additional things you would need are Xanthan gum and an immersion blender (a regular blender is totally fine too). Gently separate the white chocolate panna cotta from the mold before turning it over onto the plate you will be serving it in. Like shown above. Panna cotta is a type of set custard that is very easy to put together. I have a comprehensive post on types of custard if you’d like more information on all things custards and puddings! The hallmark of a perfect panna cotta is that “jiggle”! That jiggle to me is an ABSOLUTE MUST! 🙂 It’s a creamy dessert that is just set with the aid of a gelling agent (like gelatin, or agar-agar for vegetarian option). It can be unmolded for better presentation, or served in the same dish that it’s prepared in as well. I’ve shared several other panna cotta recipes on the blog, including a base recipe for classic panna cotta, along with recipes for matcha panna cotta, coconut panna cotta, and even bubble milk tea panna cotta made with infused boba milk tea and topped with boba pearls! This White Chocolate Panna Cotta is just insanely divine! It was delightfully creamy (it means cooked cream in Italian after all) and the white chocolate was the sweetener which also adds another creamy element in addition to the wonderful tropical flavour and creaminess you get from the coconut! And that hibiscus syrup… oh baby! It’s sweet (but not overly sweet), thick and luscious. With beautiful citrus and berry flavours, it was the perfect pairing for the sweet tropical flavours of my panna cotta. I’ve since also made this hibiscus strawberry margarita ice cream float, which is another summer favourite of ours! The different sized hibiscus syrup pearls I made were super fun too. The smaller ones of course burst in your mouth readily and flood it with that gorgeous syrupy goodness. The large spheres are a great way to encase extra syrup that you can burst open with a fork so it covers your panna cotta and floods the plate! Honestly, there should be a NSFW tag attached to this. This is food porn in all its glory. Seriously, don’t say I didn’t warn you! So how would YOU like to make spheres like this? 🙂 What kind of flavour would you like encased in beautiful little pearls like this? You can of course make them savoury too! Those larger spheres are actually called “liquid raviolis” and you can create them with all kinds of purees.
