Vanilla Yoghurt Panna Cotta With Balsamic Thyme Roasted Peaches And Nectarines

Vanilla Yoghurt Panna Cotta With Balsamic Thyme Roasted Peaches And Nectarines

Panna Cotta is such a wonderful dessert. I love to serve it up for company because it’s easy to whip up and great for making ahead totally making entertaining easy. It’s an Italian dessert of sweetened cream and in this case a mixture of cream and yoghurt, thickened with a little gelatin and molded in a cup or in any container you would like it in. For ease of serving I love to serve it in glass cups. It’s not only easy for individual servings but perfectly elegant looking and you don’t have to worry about unmolding it onto a plate perfectly. 

Ingredients

For the Panna Cotta

• 4 tablespoons (60 ml) water
• 2½ teaspoons unflavoured gelatin
• 2 cups plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
• 2 cups (475 ml) whole milk or heavy cream divided
• ¼ granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about ½ lemon)

For the roasted peaches and nectarines

• 4 peaches (I used 2 peaches and 2 nectarines but any stone fruit would work)
• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of pepper
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme plus more for garnish

Instructions

For the Panna Cotta

1. Place water in a small bowl and stir in gelatin and set aside until the gelatin softens, about 15 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk all of yogurt and 1 cup of milk or cream.
3. In a small saucepan, bring remaining milk or cream and sugar to a low simmer.
4. Stir in water-gelatin mixture (it will dissolve immediately) and remove from heat.
5. Whisk this mixture into the yogurt mixture, then stir in lemon juice at the end.
6. Pour mixture into small cups or pan and chill in fridge for at least 2 hours for small cups and up to 8 for a large pan. It’s best to do this the night before you need it for best outcome.

For the roasted peaches and nectarines

1. Preheat oven to 400 ° F.
2. Cut each peach in half around the pit then pull apart from the pit and then cut each half in half. Place peach quarters on a baking dish.
3. Mix balsamic vinegar with honey and drizzle over the peaches.
4. Season with salt and pepper, place over them the sports of thyme and place in the oven and roast 30 minutes until caramelised and tender.
5. Once done remove and allow them to cool and then serve over the Panna Cotta along with a drizzle of the pan juices. They are also fabulous over ice cream.

Get fancy

• To get the layered angled affect I used a square baking pan (the one I use for brownies) to stabilise my angled positioned glasses. I lined the baking pan with a dish cloth (to add some bulk between glasses for stability) and tipped each glass against each corner of pan at roughly the same angle. I then placed an inverted smaller glass in the middle of the pan to stabilised the other cups. Pour the mixture carefully into each tipped glass and then carefully transfer the entire baking dish into the refrigerator for the Panna Cotta to set on an angle in the cups.