Yogurt pannacotta (mark 3)

Yogurt pannacotta with elsanta strawberries

Mark 1 - Eventually I won the war with pannacotta. I'm not too proud to admit that the first time I made it the pannacotta was inedible. Quite an achievement considering the fact I will pretty much eat anything, drawing the line at the  “stuff” that comes out of the work canteen. To be honest I’m not too sure what went wrong last time. I’ve gone over it in my head like some broken hearted teenage girl. Maybe I neglected it? Maybe I did it all wrong?  Realistically I think it failed because I because the buttermilk that I tried to make it with was off.  It smelt acrid. Horrible stuff. Seems so obvious now.

Mark 2 – I had tried to freeze cream. It didn’t work. When I defrosted it, it was lumpy. To quote the Smiths “I was bored before I even began”. Pannacotta mark 2 was a non-starter.

Mark 3 - Third time I tried it with yogurt it seemed to work better. I wanted to keep it fresher than just set cream. Persistence paid off and I was able to bring a nice summery dessert over to a friend's for dinner. I was smug; I had won the pannacotta war.

This dish is unbelievably easy (despite my previous attempts). It took only 10 minutes to make. It needs a chum to accompany it, fresh strawberries like these “elsantas” were tasty or some roasted rhubarb would work equally well.

Yogurt pannacotta serves 4

2 ½-3 sheets of gelatine (depending how wobbly you like it)

285ml carton of double cream

300ml plain yogurt (2 yeo valley pots)

1tsp vanilla paste (or 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out)

4 slightly heaped dessertspoons caster sugar

Add the gelatine to a bowl of cold water, leave to stand for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime gently heat the cream in a pan over a medium to low heat.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

Slowly increase the heat till the cream is just about to boil and has thickened.

It should be able to coat the back of a spoon.

Take the cream off the heat, squeeze the water out of the gelatine and add to the cream.

Stir until dissolved.

Leave the mixture to cool for a minute or two.

Be patient.

Add the yogurt and vanilla, stir in.

If you are a perfectionist, put the mixture through a sieve, otherwise pour the mixture into the 4 dishes.

Leave to cool for about an hour before putting in the fridge.

Once in the fridge they will take 2-3 hours to set.

To serve, dip the bottomof the pots in hot water for a couple of seconds.

Put a butter knife around the top of the pot to loosen.

Give it a gentle shake to get the air to the bottom and turnout on a plate.

Enjoy.