Vegan Coffee Panna Cotta

Its vacation time for my son and we are in Bangalore. No early morning alarms that shake you out of your sleep, no cooking for the lunch box, no crazy Ahmedabad heat...just plain lazing around, meeting friends and cousins and checking out the new restaurants in Bangalore over the next few weeks.

Remember this post on Grape and raisin focaccia that I had posted last month as part of the Groovy Gourmets ? This time around, we had to make panna cotta. I had tried making panna cotta maybe a couple of years back. It was the first time and a huge hit. The next few times the gelatin really let me down.



I've always been fascinated with desserts set in a jar and I found this one, which is actually a candle holder in Ma's collection, so I used that as a mould for the panna cotta. I set the rest in some ramekins. Its always nice to serve this as individual servings, in little ramekins.

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert with milk, cream, sugar and some flavours set with gelatin.
My mother is lactose intolerant and anything with milk and cream is a big no-no. She loves coffee and so I decided on a coffee flavoured dairy-free panna cotta. I was very apprehensive how this would turn out since it was my first time with a no cream panna cotta. I used soy milk and coconut milk and also substituted the gelatin with its vegetarian counter part agar agar. The agar agar set it beautifully and my panna cotta turned vegan !



The coffee flavour was mild and with no real cream, it made for a light dessert. I garnished it with some grated dark chocolate.


Vegan Coffee Panna cotta

What you need -

500 ml unflavoured soy milk
200 ml thick coconut milk
8 gm agar agar
1.5 tbsp instant coffee powder
3 tbsp sugar

What you do with it -

Pour out the soy milk and coconut milk in a pan and simmer it on a low flame
Add the sugar and stir it in well
Dissolve the coffee powder in two tbsp of the soy milk and then pout it into the pan
Soak the agar agar in water for at least 10 mins. This packet of agar agar was more like a little mat, which turned into strands when soaked
Rinse the water three times and strain the agar agar
Add this to the pan and mix well on a low flame till it dissolves completely
Turn off the heat
Strain and pour into moulds
Allow it to set in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours
Serve cold, garnished with some chocolate

Grape and raisin flatbread (Vegan)

Food blogging is so much more than just blogging about food. It connects you to this whole new universe of people who are so passionate about cooking, baking and sharing it with the rest of the world. It has helped me learn so much about cooking, photography and nicest part has been getting to know like-minded people, even if they lived on the other side of the globe.

Thanks to the various interesting groups on facebook, I got to know Anusha of Tomato Blues and I was thrilled to know of a food blogger who is just a few hours drive from here. She asked me if I am interested in joining a group called Groovy Gourmets on facebook. They select a blog, book or recipe every month and you can choose what you'd like to make from it. Everyone then posts it on the 3rd of the following month.



This month's theme was something vegan from Roxana's home baking.
There are plenty of black grapes in the markets now. Beautiful colour, seedless and delicious. I was contemplating making a grape focaccia for the longest time and then saw this on Roxana's blog.

Sticking to deadlines is something I manage to do, though most of the times, it happens a few minutes before the deadline. I finally baked it for breakfast this morning. Had it with cheese slices and the fig preserve that I made a couple of weeks back. The smell of freshly baked bread in the morning is something I would love waking up to, just that in my case I am the one who has to wake up and bake it...



Working with a starter looked very daunting, and I had very little time on hand, so I made a few changes and thankfully, it all worked out in the end. Here's the link to Roxana's recipe and here's my version

This yeast beauty is off to Susan's Yeastspotting

Vegan grape and raisin flatbread

What you need -

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup maida / APF
1 tsp instant yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup raisins
a few fresh black grapes

What you do with it -

In a large mixing bowl add the flours and the yeast along with the salt and sugar.
Pour the warm water over it and stir it in with a wooden spoon
Add 1/2 the olive oil and grease your fingers and gently mix in the flours to form a sticky dough
Add in the raisins and mix once more
Preheat the oven to 180 C
Transfer to a greased bowl and allow it to rise in a warm place till it doubles in size
Once the dough has risen, punch it down and shape it into a little circle
Dimple the dough with a few fresh black grapes and allow to rise for another 15-20 mins
Bake at 180 C for 15-20 mins or till the top turns golden brown
Let it cool for a couple of minutes and then enjoy it with butter, cheese or a preserve