Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

• 400 mldouble cream
• 100 mlwhole milk
• 60 gcaster sugar
• 1vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
• 4gelatine leaves, soaked
• 90 gshortbread biscuits, crushed
• 1 tbspicing sugar
• 250 graspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tbsplemon juice
• 30 gpistachios, roughly chopped
• 1pinch fine salt

Method

1. 1Drop the gelatine leaves into a bowl of cold water and leave for 5 minutes until floppy; toasted gelatine dissolves cleanly; dry gelatine sits in lumps. Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape the seeds out with the back of a knife.
2. 2Tip the cream, milk, caster sugar and a small pinch of salt into a saucepan with the vanilla pod and seeds. The salt is important here; it lifts the vanilla and stops the dairy tasting flat. Warm over a medium-low heat until you see fine bubbles forming at the edges and steam rising, about 4–5 minutes. Don't let it boil; you're infusing, not cooking.
3. 3Pull the pan off the heat. Squeeze the water from the gelatine leaves and whisk them into the hot cream until fully dissolved; no streaks, no lumps, or you'll get rubbery threads through the set. Fish out the vanilla pod and strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug for a glassy finish.
4. 4Taste the warm cream now; it should be sweet, vanilla-forward, with just enough salt to make the cream taste like cream. Adjust with a few more grains of salt if it's reading flat.
5. 5Divide between six ramekins or pretty glasses. Cool to room temperature, then cover and chill for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, until the centres wobble like a settled jelly when nudged.
6. 6For the coulis, simmer half the raspberries with the caster sugar and lemon juice for 3–4 minutes until they collapse and turn glossy. The lemon juice is doing real work; it sharpens the fruit and stops the coulis tasting like jam. Blitz, then pass through a sieve to catch the seeds. Stir the remaining whole raspberries through for little bursts of fruit.
7. 7To turn out, dip each ramekin briefly in hot water, run a knife around the edge, and invert onto a plate; give it one confident shake. Or serve in the glass.
8. 8Spoon the raspberry coulis around and over each panna cotta, scatter with the crushed shortbread and chopped pistachios, tuck a few extra fresh raspberries alongside, and finish with a soft snowfall of icing sugar.

Per serving

kcal

497

protein

4g

fibre

3.6g

carbs

31g

fat

39.2g