Baked by Jane

This recipe is a bit of a hybrid between and trifle and a Panna cotta. Personally I think it’s better than trifle, It still has all the loveliness in layers and textures like trifle, but is much lighter to eat and easier to make, perfect. The Panna cotta carries the delicate flavour of the gin beautifully, and the sharpness of the raspberry is a perfect pairing. Even if you aren’t keen on floral flavours I still highly recommend using the rose water as it just brings out those floral botanicals in the gin and gives the dessert a lift, you don’t need to use much at all, you are not trying to make it taste of rose, just enhance the flavour.

I’ve come up with a recipe to compliment their gin, a beautiful layered Panna cotta.

Serves

4 generous serving

Ingredients

• 12 sponge fingers 
• 1 tbsp of Mirabeau rosé gin

Raspberry and gin jelly

• 350g bag frozen raspberries (frozen are best for this) 
• 95g caster sugar 
• Juice of one lemon 
• 2 leaves of platinum grade gelatine 
• 65 g Mirabeau rosé gin
• 3-6 drops of rose water to taste

Gin Panna cotta. 

• 300g double cream 
• 300g natural yogurt (I like Yeo valley) 
• 125g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste 
• 4 leaves of platinum grade gelatine 
• 3-6 drops rose water
• 60g Mirabeau rosé gin 

To decorate

Crystallised rose petals to decorate, mine are from Sous Chef

Method

1. Take 4 pretty tumblers or glasses to layer your dessert up in. 
    
2. Place your sponge fingers on a baking tray sugar side down, use a pastry brush to soak them in gin. I then used a round pastry cutter to cut a few sponges at a time to make neat rounds for the bottom of each glass, but feel free to trim to fit with a knife if you prefer. 
    
3. Next to make the raspberry and gin jelly layer, put your two leaves of gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soak. Put the frozen berries, caster and lemon juice into a pan on a medium heat, once it has started to bubble away reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for around 10-15 minutes, be careful it doesn’t catch on the bottom and burn, give it an occasional stir. After around 10-15 minutes it should have thickened up a bit, take it off the heat, squeeze the excess water out of the gelatine and add the leaves to the raspberries, whisking them in. Allow it to cool down a bit before you add your gin as you don’t want the alcohol to evaporate, add a few drops of rose to your taste, you aren’t trying to make it taste of rose just bring out the floral taste of the gin, so have a taste, see what you think and add a little more if you think it’s needed. When you are happy put the raspberry mixture into a jug are carefully pour on top of the sponge fingers, try to make them all even, if your sponge fingers float up to the surface just use a spoon to push them back under the raspberry jelly. Leave them to set in the fridge for a good few hours until you can feel the jelly layer is set. 
    
4. To make the Panna cotta layer, add your 4 leaves of gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soak for 5 minutes. Put the double cream, vanilla and caster sugar into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, whisking to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Squeeze out the excess water from the gelatine and add to the cream mixture, whisk again and leave to cool slightly, once the mixture has cooled down and is just warm to touch whisk in the yogurt, Gin and a few drops of rose water to taste, doing the same as you did with the jelly layer, taste it, see if you want to add a bit more or not. Transfer to a jug and very carefully pour over the raspberry layer, chill for another few hours or until nicely set. I decorated mine with a few crystallised rose petal pieces, if you choose to do the same add them just before serving. 

Notes: Can be made a day in advance, but I’ve enjoyed mine even after it’s been in the fridge a few days, still tastes great. 

Admittedly mine are rather large portions, but I love desserts! You could definitely make 6 smaller ones if you aren’t as greedy as me!