Coconut Cream Pannacotta with Bananas and Pine Nuts

When you have to entertain and feed the crowd – this pannacotta is perfect for such occasion as it is easy and yummy with a Thai-ish twist. You can prepare pannacotta hours ahead or even over night. This recipe yields 6 servings but you can stretch to 8 if necessary - just fill the moulds to 3/4 (I use 150 ml plastic jelly moulds with lids both sides).

Coconut Cream Pannacotta

1 cup cream

1 ½ cups coconut cream

½ cup milk

1 ½ - 2 teaspoons of good vanilla extract with seeds

3 ½   teaspoons gelatin powder (I use Davis – very reliable)

60 ml water at room temperature

¼ cup palm sugar, chopped

 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar

Grease the inside of 6 jelly moulds and set aside.

In a big jug, sprinkle gelatin powder in the water and set aside for 5-10 minutes. Heat milk and all the cream and sugar in the saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla extract to the milk and  pour the hot mixture over the gelatin. Stir to combine and let it cool down enough before pouring into the moulds. Leave to cool down a bit more and transfer to the fridge. It should take around 3 to 4 hours in the fridge to set. The pannacotta should slide down from the mould into the plate quite easily when it is set.

Bananas with Coconut Cream and Pine nuts

½ cup coconut cream

1 tablespoon sugar

 A pinch or 2 of salt

1 tablespoon coconut cream extra

1 teaspoon corn flour

2 Tablespoons cream

3 ripe but firm bananas

2 Tablespoon pine nuts, toasted

Heat coconut cream, salt and sugar in a small saucepan. Mix extra coconut cream with corn flour and add to the saucepan, bring to the boil briefly. Remove from heat. Leave to cool completely before storing in the fridge.

Before serving, slice bananas (about 2 cm thick) and arrange the slices around the pannacotta . Add fresh cream to the coconut cream mixture and spoon over the banana slices. Sprinkle with pine nuts. Enjoy!

Edit: Some tip to avoid separation - leave the Panna Cotta mixture to cool down to room temperature and stir again before pouring into the moulds.