Mango Panna Cotta - A deliciously smooth and silky dessert

I had no idea what pannacotta was until I started blogging. And whenever I saw it I was tempted to try, it took me a long time to try ;).
When I or say my little girl saw this pic of Sia’s we were just salivating and she wanted me to try it there and then but unfortunately did not find agar agar strips neither veg gelatin. But never to worry there is always the next mango season is what I thought and this time when the King of fruits arrived the first thing we did was went in search of Agar Agar and luckily we found the strips. I’d first tried making jelly using the strips as I wanted my hands to set well on the dessert. Unluckily the jelly was not firm… though we enjoyed it in the falooda.

Next thing I did was started searching for a video on how to use Agar Agar… after looking at it I knew I could not go wrong anywhere now. And I moved my hands on the Yummy Lucious Silky smooth Mango Pannacotta J.

Ingredients:
For Cream Layer: 

1¼ th  cups Cream (I have used full fat cream)
1 cup Milk (I have used full fat milk)
½ cup Sugar (you can increase according to your taste)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
 2½ tbsp Agar Agar strands (U can use Gelatin or 2 tssp AA powder)

For Mango Layer: 

2 cups Mango Puree, fresh or canned (I have used around 4 fresh alphonso mangoes to get the pulp)
2 tbsp Sugar (Add extra if needed)
2 ½ tbsp Agar Agar strands

How to Proceed:

Soak agar agar in a bowl of hot water ( ¾ cup of water) for 15 minutes. 

While the agar agar is soaking, lightly grease them if you plan to de-mould. Since I used the small glass jars, I omitted this step. 

For Cream Layer: 

In a pan, add milk and cream and bring them to a boil on a low flame. Add sugar and let it simmer till the sugar dissolves. Switch off the flame and keep it aside to cool in a bowl of ice water.

Lets make the agar agar mixture by adding it in a sauce pan along with the water we soaked, stir it continuously till the agar agar completely dissolves and becomes a clear mix without any lumps(make sure there are no traces of the strips remaining). Switch off the flame and keep it aside.(do not place this in ice water).

Now check the temperature of both agar agar mixture and the cream-milk mixture should be same.if yes then mix both the mixture well add in the vanilla essence and whisk well.

This step is very important if you want to pour the Mango mixture within 15 minutes. Take a bowl of ice water place the jars or moulds in the ice water and pour in the vanilla mixture slowly without spilling it. Add a little first then after 5 minutes add more. Allow this mixture to set in the ice water it for atleast 15  minutes then pouring the mango mixture will be easy.

 For the Mango Layer: 

Similar to the cream layer, first soak agar agar in a bowl of hot water for 15 minutes.

Take the mango puree in a pan and bring it to gentle boil on a low flame. Add sugar and simmer it until the sugar is completely dissolved. Switch off the flame and keep it aside. 

Now prepare the agar agar mixture just as you made for the cream layer. Make sure that the agar agar is completely dissolved and there are no lumps left. 

When both the mixtures are luke warm mix in agar agar mixtur and whisk it well. 

Take out the set cream layer from the ice water bowl, and pour in the mango layer. Tighten the lid and place them in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours. 

Important Notes:

You can avoid the ice water step no4 of cream layer and just add the vanilla mix in the jar and store in the fridge for atleast 2 hours and when set you can continue with the mango layer. I gave it a ice bath as my daughter was very eager to eat it. I made it at 12 in the afternoon at around 8 in the evening the dessert was ready to eat.

You can add vanilla seeds instead of vanilla essence.

You can even make 3-4 layers if you wish to doing the ice bath system, but for this make sure both your cream and mango mixture are ready.

While mixing the agar agar make sure there are no lumps at all orelse the pannacotta will not have a smooth texture.
The procedure is a bit elaborative but Patience is must and the end result will turn to be Silky and Yum!

Enjoy Making Your Dessert using this recipe.

Take Care,