Coconut Milk Strawberry Panna Cotta & Florentine Cookies with Palm sugar

 

A light and colorful dessert is both a gastronomical and a visual treat, and the Coconut Milk Panna Cotta I made this weekend fits the bill. The coconut milk & strawberry jelly in it makes it very refreshing and a colorful dessert. If you can extract fresh coconut milk which I am sure I can’t, then you are in for a heavenly treat! I made this Panna cotta from Daring Bakers kitchen with my pack of ready to use coconut milk.

I reduced the cream portion and added thickened yogurt for Panna cotta and also switched to palm sugar to make my Oats and almonds Florentine cookies. And the result was a much lighter and to some extent a healthy version of this exotic dessert.

The February 2011  Daring Bakers ’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from  A Sofa in the Kitchen . She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Coconut Milk Panna Cotta

Ingredients for Coconut Panna Cotta

Ingredients;

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 tbsp. china grass or Gelatin powder
• ½ cup cream
• ½ cup thickened yogurt
• 1 tbsp Palm sugar
• 1 tbsp honey

For the Strawberry jelly; Use any branded jelly crystals of strawberry flavor and make the jelly and set it in refrigerator with a few pieces of strawberry in it.

Panna cotta in individual bowls

Method; Sprinkle china grass or gelatine over the glass of milk and keep it away for a few minutes to get it dissolved. Heat the milk slightly in a saucepan until it is hot, but not boiling. Whisk it and remove it from the heat and cool it slightly.

Hang fresh curd in a muslin cloth to drain the water from it.

Pour it in the desired serving bowls or Ramekins and refrigerate for 6-7 hours or overnight.

I added a few slice of fresh strawberry in the cool milk mix and set it to cool in small individual bowls.

Florentine cookies

 

Ingredients for Florentine Cookies

Ingredients;

• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup coarse almond powder
• 1/4 cup butter/oil
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup Palm sugar
• 1 tbsp. milk
• A pinch of salt

In the oven..

Method; Preheat the oven to 190°C for 10 minutes. Prepare a baking sheet or parchment paper.

Melt butter in a saucepan and remove from heat. Add rest of the ingredients into the oil/butter and mix well. Drop a tablespoon full of this batter on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten it slightly with the back of your tablespoon.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool them completely.

Coconut Milk Panna Cotta & Florentine Cookies

My kids enjoyed the colorful dessert, the strawberry jelly and the slices of the fruit in between it.

A slice of scrumptious dessert...

Notes;

1. I have reduced the quantity of cream to a large extend since I wanted to get a healthy version of my Panna cotta. You can use the recipe from the Daring baker host to get a creamy version of it.
2. Since the cream was less I could get a much firmer texture of my coconut strawberry Pana ncotta.
3. Palm sugar in the Florentine cookies gave a very flavorful cookie. I should have flattened the cookies even more for a much crisper cookies. Though the color was slightly on the brown shade and the cookies were a bit chewy, but I could enjoy the goodies guilt free
4. Though yogurt or curd in the Panna cotta is not a very wise replacement if you are looking for a much creamy and exotic revision of it. But sure is a healthy shift.
5. Will surely try Panna cotta replacing the coconut milk with whole milk & cream for an exotic version soon.

Some of the healthy desserts you may like to try on Lite Bite;

Light vanilla cake and fruit custard

Egg less and no cream Cottage Cheese Cake.