Delish, delish, delish…
What a windy day! Wow, it was unbelievably windy today, the wind roared like crazy, and that roaring sound is lil frightening to me. If I were outside I would have flown around. All of a sudden it got cloudy and dark. I was reminded that Halloween is around the corner. If by any chance I had seen a ghost, I would have been a dead meat…
For Thanksgiving, even though I’d bought pumpkin I didn’t make anything with it. I somehow wanted to use it up and was totally not up for roasting it or transforming it into a soup or pies…I wanted to make something different and gluten free as well. However, I never thought that I would end up making panna cotta with pumpkin. Well, I did make panna cotta and I am so glad I did. The cooked and pureed pumpkin was added to the cream and cooked together for sometime. I added agar-agar instead of gelatin to thicken it, it was then allowed to set in the refrigerator. Pumpkin panna cotta tasted delicious, very mildly tasting dessert that can be whipped up with so much ease.
Pumpkin Panna Cotta
Serves: for 10 people ( You can halve the amount of ingredients )
Ingredients
- Pumpkin, cubed- half of a small pumpkin, around 3 cups diced pumpkin
- Heavy cream – 4 cups
- Sugar- 1 1/4 cups
- Vanilla extract- 1 1/2 tsp
- Agar- agar strands, cut into 1 inch long- 1/2 cup
- Water- 1/2 cup to melt agar-agar
- Semi-sweet Chocolate, grated or peels- for garnishing
Instruction
- Dice the pumpkin. In a large pan, cook the pumpkin covered along with 1/2 cup water till it’s fork tender.
- Puree the cooked pumpkin in a blender to a very smooth paste, add enough water to blend it to a smooth paste.
- Combine the agar-agar in 1/2 cup water and heat it in a saucepan till it dissolves, keep stirring. (Or use gelatin).
- Add heavy cream, sugar and vanilla extract into a large saucepan, heat it over medium heat.
- Stir the cream so that the sugar dissolves completely.
- After the sugar dissolves, add the pureed pumpkin, combine really well and let the pumpkin puree mix with the cream. There shouldn’t be any lumps.
- Let the mixture come to a slight boil.
- Strain the dissolved agar-agar and add to the cooked cream-pumpkin puree, combine well, heat for a minute.
- Remove from the heat.
- Grease the ramekins or dessert bowls with a neutral tasting oil or vegetable oil, pour the cream mixture into the ramekins.
- Let cool down for sometime.
- Chill it in the refrigerate for a few hours till it’s set.
- While serving, garnish with grated semi-sweet chocolate.
- If you want, you could flip the panna cotta to a dessert plate.
Tips:
- You could use gelatin instead of agar-agar. In a small bowl, sprinkle 1 tbsp gelatin over 3 tbsp water and let soak 10 minutes (do not stir). Add this after the cream has cooked, combine well till it dissolves.
- Pumpkin, cubed- half of a small pumpkin, around 3 cups diced pumpkin
- Heavy cream - 4 cups
- Sugar- 1¼ cups
- Vanilla extract- 1½ tsp
- Agar- agar strands, cut into 1 inch long- ½ cup
- Water- ½ cup to melt agar-agar
- Semi-sweet Chocolate, grated or peels- for garnishing
- Dice the pumpkin. In a large pan, cook the pumpkin covered along with ½ cup water till it's fork tender.
- Puree the cooked pumpkin in a blender to a very smooth paste, add enough water to blend it to a smooth paste.
- Combine the agar-agar in ½ cup water and heat it in a saucepan till it dissolves, keep stirring. (Or use gelatin).
- Add heavy cream, sugar and vanilla extract into a large saucepan, heat it over medium heat.
- Stir the cream so that the sugar dissolves completely.
- After the sugar dissolves, add the pureed pumpkin, combine really well and let the pumpkin puree mix with the cream. There shouldn't be any lumps.
- Let the mixture come to a slight boil.
- Strain the dissolved agar-agar and add to the cooked cream-pumpkin puree, combine well, heat for a minute.
- Remove from the heat.
- Grease the ramekins or dessert bowls with a neutral tasting oil or vegetable oil, pour the cream mixture into the ramekins.
- Let cool down for sometime.
- Chill it in the refrigerate for a few hours till it's set.
- While serving, garnish with grated semi-sweet chocolate.
- If you want, you could flip the panna cotta to a dessert plate.
