Panna Cotta with Cointreau

And served here with wild strawberries, from the garden. I prefer to make these as individual dishes, as the process of cutting into a large single panna cotta in order to serve it is sure to end up with it looking like the Wrath of God! For these, and in order to have a finished shape which is appropriate to contain berries for serving, I use individual savarin moulds.

For two individual panna cotta.

Ingredients: 7.5 ml cream; 2.5 ml milk; 3 tbs cointreau; 50g sugar (or equivalent volume sucralose); 1 tsp vanilla essence; 1/2 tbs powdered gelatine. For the caramel in the mould: 1 heaped tbs sugar.

Method:

1. Grease two individual savarin moulds, or ramekins, and put to one side.

2. In a small saucepan, place the milk, cream, sugar (or sucralose), cointreau, and vanilla. Bring the mixture to boil, and then reduce the heat and let it simmer, stirring all the while, for two minutes. At this point, put the pan to one side, for an hour or more, to cool down completely.

3. In the top part of a double boiler, over medium heat, put about 1/4 cup of hot water, and into it sprinkle the powdered gelatine. Stir gently, to dissolve the gelaine, until the liquid is clear. To this, add the cream mixture, and whisk to incorporate thoroughly. Turn off the heat under the double boiler. All the mixture to cool down - it takes another hour or more - whisking every so often, to ensure that the gelatine doesn't separate out as the mixture cools.

4. In a separate small pan, use the sugar and a couple of tbs of hot water to make a light caramel, and divide this between the two individual moulds, making sure that it covers the bottom each one. 

5. Divide the cooled cream mixture between the two moulds. Place the moulds in the fridge for at least two hours, to set.

6. To unmould, fill a small bowl with very hot water, and hold the base of each mould in the water for about half a minute - you'll know that it will exit the mould properly if you tip the mould slightly at an angle, and you should see the panna cotta move easily as you do so.

7. Unmould onto an appropriate plate, add berries (if you wish) , and serve.