Cranberry pannacotta

I have a thing for pannacotta…. ever since I tasted the first (the first homemade version that is) pannacotta I am sort of addicted. It’s not that I make this dessert every week or even every month for that matter, but no matter what flavor I make; I love it every single time… From the lemon buttermilk pannacotta, to the cinnamon apple pannacotta, to this seasonal variety. They’re all good… Not so good for the waistline though; lots of cream in there…

While we initially wanted to make the Italian icecream for dessert (and don’t worry, we will be making that before the year is over.. ) we figured a little lighter then that would be advisable. It’s weird really that most christmas dishes are rather heavy on the stomach; we had to really make adjustments from our original menu to the current one to make sure that we didn’t have to roll every one out the door. I don’t know about you but I don’t particularly like the overly full feeling that you get after eating too much. I do – in fact – hate that feeling and while I am the only one to blame for that feeling when it happens to me, I would like to think that I try to avoid it as much as possible. So we made a few adjustments to the final menu; some things were cancelled, other things were added. No potatoes at the main course; the cream leek tart will be more then enough even without potatoes. And a nice fresh salad to go with the ham and the tart and then for dessert a pannacotta. While the pannacotta is arguably not exactly leaner then the Italian icecream when you count it in calories; it does feel lighter due to the smaller portion and the fact that I will be changing the recipe that I followed for the above cranberry version. I am going to add the buttermilk in.

Dare we hope for a white christmas??

The lemon buttermilk pannacotta that I made before is perfect in that sense; due to the tartness of the buttermilk it looses some of it’s rich creamy texture making it fresh and light. And then I will add the cranberries to it for that seasonal feeling (and because I love cranberries too ofcourse) I will make them a little sweeter then the ones we use for the ham to counter balance the lemon and buttermilk. Hmmm, lovely… and that then is our christmas menu complete!

I will give you below the recipe for the original cranberry pannacotta which I made yesterday. If you make it I would advise adding a little lemon or some other sour tasting flavor to pick it up a little.

Yesterday it has been snowing almost the entire day resulting in a big pile of white fluffy snow today and when the sun broke through the clouds this morning I just had to go for a little walk in the park across from our house. Isn’t it beautiful?? Too bad that it will probably not last until christmas. It’s gonna be melting starting tomorrow… O well, we had fun while it lasted, although it’s a nightmare for traffic ofcourse. Our little country is not equipped to deal with things like heavy snow or frost; everyone is in  a state of panick, trains, trams and buses no longer operate due to frozen tracks, or whatever else happens and let’s not talk about the traffic jams!! Yesterday, a sunday no less, we had a total of 1200 minutes traffic jam and 90 traffic jams altogether. On a sunday! Imagine what would’ve happened if yesterday had been a monday.

Thanks to christmas holidays the traffic was bad but not as bad as it could have been on a regular working day. I was supposed to have a photoshoot with two kids wanting a portrait for their parents, but they had to come from far and well… the trains didn’t run so…. I had the morning off to enjoy the sunshine and the snow.

Here is the recipe for the pannacotta!

PANNACOTTA WITH CRANBERRIES (serves 4)

80 gr white castersugar

100 gr fresh cranberries

1 vanillabean

375 ml whipping cream or double cream

2 leaves of gelatine

100 ml yogurt

4 forms (150 ml each) or one large form (0,5 ltr)

1. In a saucepan heat 50 gr of castersugar with 5 tbsp of water en add, once the sugar is melted, the cranberries. Simmer on low for about 3 minutes.

2. Cut the vanillabean open lenghtwise. Heat the cream in a saucepan and add the vanillabean and the rest of the sugar. Leave to simmer but not really boil for 5 minutes en make sure all sugar is dissolved. Remove the vanillabean from the cream and scrape the marrow from the vanilla with a sharp knife and add the marrow to the cream.

3. Soak the gelatine leaves for about 5 minutes in cold water. Squeeze them and add to the hot cream. Stir until dissolved. Leave to cool and add the yogurt. Divide the yogurtcream over the forms and spoon 1 teaspoon of the cranberries into each form. Put into the fridge for at least 3 hours. To remove the pannacotta from the forms, shortly keep them under a hot tab and put them on plates. Serve with the rest of the cranberries.