Rosé Gin & Raspberry Panna Cotta

by Jane Lewis

Jane has been baking since she was a little girl but started seriously baking 10 years ago after starting a family.
“At first it was about giving myself a challenge and trying to learn new skills as I really missed being in the work environment. After a few years of enthusiastic baking I then went on to apply for The Great British Bake Off – I wanted to find out what I was capable of. I got through all the baking challenges and found myself in the last round of auditions but sadly I wasn’t chosen for the show.”
This experience gave Jane the drive to pursue her ambition and start her own home baking business 6 years ago. 

Jane is a self taught baker, but over the last few years has completed a pastry masterclass, croissant, veinnoiserie and the 5 day bread course at The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School in Bath.
“I’m really passionate about pursuing a career in food. I love feeding people, there’s nothing nicer than seeing people enjoy what you’ve made for them.

This recipe is a bit of a hybrid between and trifle and a Panna cotta. Personally I think it’s better than trifle, the lightness of the Panna cotta carries the delicate flavour of the gin beautifully, and the sharpness of the raspberry is a perfect pairing. It still has all the loveliness in layers and textures like trifle, but is much lighter to eat and easier to make, perfect. 

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! 

Rosé Gin Panna Cotta

4 generous servings

Ingredients

Soaked sponge fingers

  • 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
  • 6 drops of rose water (or to taste)

Gin Panna cotta

  • 300g double cream 
  • 300g natural yogurt 
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste 
  • 4 leaves of platinum grade gelatine 
  • 3-6 drops of Rose water
  • 60g Mirabeau rosé gin 
  • Crystallised rose petals to decorate (mine are from souschef)  

Method

For the soaked sponge fingers

  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 the tops of them in gin. 
  3. 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.  

For the raspberry and gin jelly layer

  1. Put your two leaves of gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soak.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 water to your taste, you aren’t trying to make it taste of rose just bring out the botanicals in the gin and lift the flavour a bit, so have a taste, see what you think and add a little more if you think it’s needed.
  5. When you are happy place 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. 

For the panna cotta layer

  1. Add your 4 leaves of gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soak for 5 minutes.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Transfer to a jug and very carefully pour over the raspberry layer, chill for another few hours or until nicely set.
  5. I decorated mine with a few crystallised rose petal pieces, if you choose to do the same add them just before serving. 

Looking for other Valentine’s Day (or Galentine’s day!) recipes? Check our Shrimp & Sriracha Ramen and our Rosé Gin & Raspberry Panna Cotta!

Our range