Chamomile & Mint Panna Cotta Tart

Summer dessert treat- Panna cotta

Summers call for quick, delicious and fancy desserts. Look no further – Chamomile and Mint Panna Cotta. For me there is nothing better for appreciating this season of fresh herbs and berries. The crust is gluten free since it’s made with oats and nuts. This elegant and velvety dessert is absolutely sublime,it’s perfect for summers.

Just like that we are half way through 2018. This also means that my birthday month is here- my favorite month of the year. Not just because it’s my birthday but also because it’s the season of fresh herbs and vibrant, delicious and juicy berries. You are probably sick of hearing it but I love fresh herbs and fresh seasonal produce, especially if they are growing in my backyard. Nothing is more fulfilling. 

My flavorful garden

Right now I have fresh mint growing like crazy in my garden. It’s hard for me to resist, but I want to infuse every damn dish with it. It’s so refreshing and flavorful, so why not, right? I also grew chamomile tea and still waiting for the blooms to start. I come from a tea loving family where the day starts with ginger mint and cardamom tea and ends with the herbal tea. So infusing desserts with tea always seems like a good idea. It’s like having a cup of tea and dessert all in one bite. This chamomile and mint panna cotta is a great summer elegance and a perfect dessert for entertaining or barbecue parties. Biting on a velvety tea infused panna cotta and sipping my favorite herbal tea on my patio on a warm summer day, is what I living for this summer.

Less kitchen time more fam time

This summer has been very hot and humid. To tell you the truth, I have not been spending much time in the kitchen. My family is visiting and I have been taking them around going on short vacations and site seeing. So cooking has become a lesser priority. Do I miss cooking? Yes and no. No because, I’m loving my time with my parents. I am absolutely loving my time outdoors and vacationing with them. My mom has been cooking and who doesn’t love mom’s food; especially when she makes all your childhood favorite meals, heavenly. However, I do miss cooking and playing with flavors at times, but that can wait for a few more weeks 🙂 For these reasons, quick and fancy desserts like panna cotta, lots of patio and lake time with the best company ever, is the way to go this summer.

I had frozen a few desserts for them (Thandai panna cotta and Mango Bavarian Cake) before they arrived. All I can say is that, both the desserts were gone too quickly. They loved them and that made me so happy that I did a happy dance 😊 It will be so hard for me to recover from the summer hangover after my family leaves. After all the pampering all summer long, I will need another vacation to recover I guess😊. I will think about that later, for now I will just enjoy every bit of it. 

It’s tea time! Or is it?

For the panna cotta I used a little bit of my garden’s dried chamomile blooms that was left over from last year. I also used the chamomile tea blend (Meadow Tea) by smith tea maker. Their teas are amazing, especially the Meadow. It’s a blend of rose, chamomile and safflower. The floral notes of the tea is just so flavorful . This is not sponsored at all, I genuinely love most of their teas. 

The tea and mint along with a vanilla bean pod was steeped in the mix of cream and milk for 30-45 minutes. However, after I strained in the mix, I put back the vanilla to get more flavor into the custard. You could steep it for as long as you want. Just remember the longer you steep, the more bitter notes of the tea you’ll get, even if it’s a milder tea. I added a little citrus and lemon grass into the custard to balance out the tea flavor and make it more refreshing. For the sweetener I used Manuka honey instead of sugar. You can use sugar and add extra sweetener if you want extra sweet.

For the crust…

The crust is made out of oats, pistachios, almonds and coconut. Since it has oats and nuts, will that be considered a nutritive tart? May be.  To give a refreshing touch to the crust, I added lemon zest. Perfect summery crust with a summery floral panna cotta. Oh! and there is more. To make the crust sweeter, I added jaggery instead of sugar. How amazing is that? The entire tart has no processed sugar. That makes it nutritive now, doesn’t it?

I had used 2 tart shells, one of which was a lot deeper than the other. That’s the reason I had to make extra crust and filling. If you have left over crust, you can bake it and use the crunchy crumbled up crust as your top decoration on the panna cotta or on any other dessert. I decided to go fancy with all the juiciest and prettiest berries with a touch of edible gold leaf. You can fancy up your tart however you like. Let your creativity run wild!

Have a flavorful summer

Now that I’ve updated you with my summer shenanigans and an awesome dessert hack, I’ll go and spend some more time on the patio with my family. I am missing out on all the laughs I’m hearing from my room. I’m leaving you with the recipe for this summer deliciousness, so you can make it quickly and enjoy the elegant flavors that mother nature has to offer this summer. Have a lovely and gorgeous summer, also, stay cool.

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Chamomile and Mint Panna Cotta

Ingredients

For the Crust

• 100 grams Oats
• 100 grams Pistachios
• 100 grams Almond meal
• 50 grams Desiccated coconut
• 2 tbsp Jaggery
• 1 tsp Lemon zest
• 4 tbsp Butter

For the Custard

• 500 ml Heavy cream
• 225 ml Milk
• 20 grams Chamomile tea
• 5-7 grams Mint leaves
• 1/4 cup 85 grams approx honey
• 1/2 Lemon grass optional
• 1/2 Vanilla bean
• 1 tsp Lemon zest
• 10 grams gelatin

Instructions

For the crust

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Coarsely blend oats, and pistachios separately in food processor.
3. Put all the other ingredients including the oats and pistachios back in the food processor and pulse for 30 seconds to combine all the ingredients well.
4. Put the mix into the tart shell. Firmly press the mix at the bottom and on the sides. Make sure it’s tight and firm before you put in the oven.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes until light brown
6. Cool it completely before you put the panna cotta custard in the shells.

For the custard

1. Put the milk and cream in a heavy bottom pan and put that on medium heat until it’s hot. You don’t want to boil it fully. Add the honey and mix well until it all dissolves.
2. If using lemon grass, cut it in half length wise and put that in the pot. Roughly chop the mint leaves and put that in pot along with tea. Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise in half and scrape off the caviar. Let it all steep for 30-45 minutes until the flavor is subtle but not too bitter.
3. Check for sweetener and add more if you like it sweet. Remember that desserts taste sweeter when and hot because the sweetness subsides as it cools down.
4. Strain the cream well and put back the vanilla pod for a bit longer if you like.
5. Once the custard mix has cooled down to room temperature, take half of it in a separate pan. Sprinkle gelatin and let it bloom for 5 minutes.
6. Put that pan on low heat and warm the cream, just enough to melt gelatin. Do not boil the cream. You could do this on a double boiler too as this will prevent the gelatin from burning.
7. Once the gelatin is melted, take the pan off the heat, and mix the rest of the custard with the warm mix. Put over ice batch to cool.
8. Once it starts to thicken, pour the custard into the tart shell and immediately put this in refrigerator to set for a minimum of 2-3 hours. You could freeze it after its set for later use.
9. Decorate with berries or berry compte or however you like.
10. Enjoy with a cup of herbal tea or as is.