Green Tea Panna Cotta

So, I am in love with this recipe! Panna cotta is an Italian milk/cream gelatin dessert that is sweet and wondering and so satisfying. Its even better because since it is just milk and cream based, you can easily add in your own little twist and make it practically any flavor you want! I love green tea in the summer time and thought this would be the perfect time to make it. It's so simple, yet the results would blow anyone away.

I made about 4 mugs worth of panna cotta. This might be a bit much, so if you're putting them in smaller containers I suggest halving the ingredients. I was making this for my parents, who don't really enjoy sweet desserts. I was trying to keep the flavor of the matcha authentic. However, if you enjoy your desserts to be on the sweeter side you should double the amount of sugar I used. I topped this panna cotta with honey to counter balance any bitter flavor for the matcha powder, but honey will go well on a sweet green tea panna cotta as well. 

Ingredients

• 1 pint of half and half
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
• about 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 3 tbs matcha powder
• 2 packets of unflavored gelatin
• water
• honey
• lemon zest (the amount is to preference)

Process

1) Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin, set aside to soften. For two packets of gelatin I used a little less than half a cup of water.
2) In a small saucepan, add the heavy cream, half and half, lemon zest and sugar, bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn the heat off and add the gelatin mixture, whisk for a couple minutes or until the gelatin melts. 
3) add matcha power to a little bit of boiling water and mix till it throughly dissolves. Add the dissolved matcha in mater mixture into your hot milk and gelatin mixture. 
4) repeat until all of the matcha powder has been dissolved and added. Make note of the color and taste you want to achieve. 
5) Strain this mixture through a cheesecloth on top of a sieve. Redissolve and add any matcha powder that did not pass through the strainer. 
6) repeat until the desire color and taste is achieved. Add sugar when needed.
7) Divide the mixture into ramekins or cups. I added it into 4 glass mugs and 1 tea cup. 

To serve:

If you want your panna cottas to be sitting freely on a plate, dip the bottom of each ramekin or tea cup in a bowl of hot water for 10 seconds. Run a thin knife around the edges of the ramekin or tea cup and carefully transfer it to a plate. This might take a couple of attempts. 
Whip up some heavy cream and place a dollop on top. Then, drizzle with some honey. 

And ta-da! You are finished!

Final note: As I stated before, this dessert is so simple to make. The only part that might be  a bit of a nuance is that matcha powder tends to form clumps, so be very careful when adding it to the milk. In retrospect, I would've passed it through a sieve first. 
The more common panna cotta is a vanilla panna cotta. So, instead of adding in the matcha powder, just scrape the seeds from a vanilla pod and add both the seeds and vanilla pod in! It also looks very fancy! Vanilla panna cottas are typically served with a fruit sauce on top. 

 Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!