Sakura Sencha Panna Cotta Ring – Recipe

Spring is sakura season, so what better excuse than to eat a lot of it!


This ever-so-slightly boozy recipe was brought about when I wanted to make another sake jelly-type thing, but had *ahem* run out of sake. What I did have though, was kirsch, which happens to also be cherry-related. Perfect!

Because the clear layer and the panna cotta layer are made of two different types of gels (one a seaweed-based gel, one beef gelatine-based gel), the two layers may separate when you pop them out of the mould as they won't bond together. This is fine though, they can easily be placed back together! The reason why I used the Gulaman crystal clear stuff was to help the process of removing everything from the mould: I tried making the clear layer with gelatine but unfortunately it stuck to the silicone. So here we are.

Ready? Let's go.

Ingredients:

Sakura Layer:

300ml water
100ml kirsch
100g caster sugar
1 box crystal clear gulaman
Pickled cherry blossoms, rinsed and soaked
Pink food colouring

Sencha Panna Cotta Layer:

1 1/2 tsp gelatin, soaked in 2 tbsp water
400ml double cream
1 tbsp sakura sencha (or regular sencha if you can't find it)
70g caster sugar

Instructions:

1. Place your cherry blossoms in the bottom of your moulds. To make the clear layer, dissolve the gulaman, sugar and colouring in the water and kirsch, then bring to a boil in a saucepan. Pour into your moulds over the cherry blossoms, and leave to cool.

2. Bring the double cream to a very gentle simmer, dissolving the sugar in it and stirring in the tea leaves. Let simmer for a couple of minutes (the longer the stronger the tea taste – I left it for about five minutes), then take off the heat. Pass through a sieve, discard the tea leaves and while still quite warm, stir in the soaked gelatine until dissolved.

3. Pour this mixture over the clear layer, leave to cool completely and chill in the fridge for at least four hours.

4. Unmould and serve immediately.


Enjoy, and have fun!

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