This designer, chic style, creamy and delicious vanilla & strawberry panna cotta is a marriage made and is really easy to make. It is a great no-bake dessert with no hassle, perfect for making ahead of time, dining for 2 or if you are entertaining guests.

All it takes to achieve this beautiful elegant style dessert is to tilt your serving glasses when layering for a gorgeous designer presentation.

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What is Panna Cotta?

Panna Cotta is an Italian dessert and word, translated it means ‘cooked cream‘. It includes only 5 simple ingredients, consisting of - cream, milk, sugar, vanilla and gelatin. When mixed together they create a light set custard-like consistency. The end result is silky smooth and rich in taste.

The beautiful thing about panna cotta is that it can be made in wide variety of flavours - coffee, raspberry, blueberry, mango, peach or chocolate, whatever takes your fancy. If you decide to stick with a traditional vanilla panna cotta you can dress it up with fresh ripe juicy fruits such as raspberries, strawberries or sweet cherries.

About This Panna Cotta

At first glance this dessert looks complicated but with some tilting action and a little patience, you will have this made in no time.

There are 3 components to this dessert:

Vanilla Panna Cotta - This is the basic panna cotta made with cream, milk, sugar, vanilla and gelatin.

Strawberry Panna Cotta - We add strawberry puree to give it a strawberry flavour and a gorgeous hue of natural light pink.

Coloured Strawberry Panna Cotta - We use the same Strawberry Panna Cotta and add a touch of food paste/gel colouring for the deeper colour.

Ingredients Used & Alternatives

Whole Milk - It is better to use whole milk, rather than low fat. However, you could use almond or coconut milk as an alternative.

Whipping Cream - I normally use a whipping cream that is 35% - 38% fat content. If you can’t find whipping cream with fat content that high, make sure to use one that is at least 32%. Low-fat cream will set into a softer panna cotta.

Sugar - I used icing sugar in my vanilla panna cotta recipe, since it dissolves super quick. Then used baking sugar in my strawberry panna cotta (you could also use other fine grain white sugar). It needs to be a sugar that dissolves quickly and does not effect colour of the mixture.

Gelatin - I used unflavoured powdered gelatin. As an alternative you could use Agar Agar, however that may need to be added in a different quantity to the powdered gelatin.

Strawberries - I used fresh strawberries because they were in season. However, there are no problems with using frozen strawberries (berries or fruit) to make the puree. Pulse and sieve them in same way.

How To Make Vanilla Panna Cotta

Sprinkle the powdered gelatin over the cold milk. Make sure the gelatin is covered by the milk. Set it aside to bloom for 5-10 minutes.
Pour the whipping cream into a saucepan with the icing sugar. Stir until the icing sugar has dissolved. Heat the cream until hot NOT BOILING.

When the cream is hot, remove from the heat, then pour in the gelatin mixture. Check to make sure the gelatin has dissolved. If the gelatin has not dissolved completely, gently heat the mixture again, until it has melted.
Add vanilla extract, (or vanilla pod including seeds if you want to). Stir the mixture.
Strain the vanilla panna cotta to make sure there are no lumps. Cool to room temperature before using. You can lay some cling film/saran wrap over the top to ensure no skin forms on the surface.

Make the Strawberry Puree

Prepare the strawberries by hulling them and chopping them up. Place them into a blender or food processor with some water and blitz into a puree. Simple!

How To Make Strawberry Panna Cotta

This time sprinkle the powdered gelatin over the water. Set aside to bloom.
Strain the strawberry puree into a saucepan. Add the sugar and lemon juice, heat until hot NOT BOILING, stir until all the sugar has dissovled.
Take a scoop of the hot strawberry puree add it the gelatin mixture. Stir to ensure that all the gelatin has dissolved.
Add the cream to the strawberry puree, stir well.

Turn off the heat and pour the gelatin mix into the strawberry panna cotta and stir well.
Strain the strawberry panna cotta to make sure there are no lumps. Cool to room temperature before using. Lay some cling film/saran wrap over the top to ensure no skin forms on the surface.

Deeper Shade Strawberry Panna Cotta

There are 3 shades in this Strawberry & Vanilla Panna Cotta. All I did was add some food colour paste/gel colour (not liquid food colour), to the Strawberry Panna Cotta to obtain a deeper shade.

Set add about 1 cup of Strawberry Panna Cotta and add a few drops of colour paste/gel colour, mix in well so there is an even deep colour.
You now have 3 colours ready for your designing your panna cotta.

Designer Chic Panna Cotta

Now you can totally choose to by pass all of this and just do the Vanilla Panna Cotta or Strawberry Panna Cotta or do 2 colours only. However I decided to take it one step further and make this dessert as designer and chic as possible.

Use a muffin or cupcake tin to help angle your glasses, with a paper towel propped underneath each glass to stop them for sliding around . I used glasses that were 250ml - 260ml, which was enough for 3 full glass desserts. You could use smaller glasses so you can have a larger quantity.
Pour the vanilla panna cotta into each angled glass. Set in the fridge until it is firm to the touch. Once set, pour in the next layer of colour, set this in the fridge until it is also firm to the touch. Continue this process for each layer and colour. I did the following colour formation - vanilla, coloured strawberry, natural strawberry, coloured strawberry, natural strawberry, coloured strawberry, vanilla, finishing off with coloured strawberry panna cotta.
For the 2 last layers I stood the glasses back up, before pouring in the panna cotta.

NOTE: That panna cotta with lots of food colour paste/gel colour in it, will take slightly longer to set in the fridge.

Finishing Touches

This last step is again optional, but I wanted to elevate this dessert to the next level.

Finish off this designer chic panna cotta topped with a fresh strawberry and some edible gold leaf.

Your designer chic dessert will be look stunning and taste delicious as the final touch to an evening meal.

Your Questions Answered

Do I have to use gelatin in my panna cotta?

Unfortunately, this dessert will not set without the use of gelatin. Powdered gelatin has not colour or flavour, so will not alter the taste or colour of your panna colour.

Can I mix in strawberry jelly/jello mix?

Not really, it is best to use gelatin. Jelly/jello mix generally have extra sugar added and not enough gelatin. This will result in the consistency of your panna cotta being too soft.

How long will my panna cotta keep for?

Panna cotta can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days. Which is why it is a perfect make ahead of time dessert for any occasion.

Can I use other fruits to make this?

Definitely! You can try raspberry, blueberry, mango or peach. Or you could keep it classic vanilla and make a berry sauce. For a simple strawberry sauce, place some strawberries with some icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pour the strawberry sauce over, the vanilla panna cotta once it is set, then finish off with fresh strawberries,

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you make it, please remember to tag me - #arisecakecreations - @arisecakecreations on Instagram or Facebook, so I can see you beautiful grand, yummy creation.

Yield: 3

Author: Sarah G. Brown