This creamy Coconut Panna Cotta with Passion fruit is a light and refreshing dessert that is bursting with coconut flavor. As fancy, as it looks, making Panna cotta, is incredibly quick and easy with very few simple ingredients, in fact, this recipe is dairy-free.
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🌟 Why this is the best recipe
- It is extremely easy – Making Panna cotta at home is super easy, literally mixing a few simple ingredients. The recipe is totally doable from scratch even if you are a beginner
- It is crazy delicious – I never compromise on taste! Creamy jiggly panna cotta bursting in coconut flavor goes wonderful with sweet and sour passion fruit compote. It will blow your mind!
- It is super versatile – Once you are comfortable with this Passion fruit Panna cotta recipe, it is super to easy experiment with different flavors and makes endless variations of the initial recipe. The key is balancing the flavors, keeping it fresh, and getting the texture right that is stable but slightly jiggly
📖 What is panna cotta
The name Panna cotta is not mentioned in Italian cookbooks before the 1960s, yet it is often cited as a traditional dessert of the northern Italian region of Piedmont. One unverified story says that it was invented by a Hungarian woman in the Langhe in the early 1900s.
Panna cotta (Italian for "cooked cream") is a molded dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin. The texture should be stable and jiggly, in the meantime more like custard and less of a jelly. Flavoring can great vary from coffee, coconut, vanilla, or other flavorings. This particular Panna cotta recipe is made with coconut milk, or high-fat content coconut puree to be exact, therefore it is dairy free panna cotta.
💡 What does Panna cotta taste like
Classic panna cotta has a silky, creamy texture and a milky, sweet taste although typically well balanced in sweetness and more on the refreshing side than being super sweet.
Panna cotta is super versatile and can be flavored or paired with almost anything you would normally use in dessert recipes, eg. strawberry, mango, vanilla, etc. This Passion fruit Coconut Panna Cotta has a wonderful natural coconut flavor due to the high fat coconut milk, that pairs beautifully with the tangy, fruity passion fruit compote.
🪄 Can I make panna cotta without gelatin
Yes, you can, however, need to use another thickening agent eg. agar agar since both the coconut milk and the fruit puree need to thicken otherwise it would not set. Using agar agar instead of gelatin, in fact, would turn this dessert into a vegan panna cotta. While using agar agar, make sure you check the instructions on the package eg. how much agar agar needs to be used to replace x gram gelatin, and make your calculation accordingly.
📝 Ingredient notes
For the Coconut panna cotta and passion fruit compote
- Coconut cream: I am using high fat coconut cream (22-24%), you might know as canned coconut milk puree. It is thick and creamy, so not the one that is watery. Please check the pic above to see the consistency of the coconut cream. This full fat coconut cream makes the panna cotta rich and gives a natural, strong coconut flavor so no need to use heavy cream and artificial flavorings. If it is not available in your local store, try the "Asian food" section. Please note that coconut cream is dairy free
- Sugar: Simply granulated sugar is fine here and only a small amount. If you like desserts very sweet, you may use more sugar than stated in the recipe. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my sugar guide
- Passion fruit puree: Fresh or frozen passion fruit pure both work. The quantity stated on the recipe card is referring to once seeds are removed. Please note, that I kept a very small amount of passion fruit seeds in the puree so visually the dessert looks like it contains passion fruit, however, I suggest removing the majority of the seeds as it can get quite unpleasant and destroys the creaminess
- Gelatin: It´s an odorless, tasteless, and colorless thickening agent, very often used by pastry chefs, particularly in mousse cakes. Powder or sheet versions are available, in my recipes I always use sheet (1,7 g / sheet), which I found easier to handle. You can replace it with gelatine powder of the same weight. If using the sheet, simply soak the gelatine sheet in cold water for a few minutes before you need them and use it according to the recipe. Please note, that gelatine is not suitable for vegetarians. Agar-agar can be a good substitution for vegetarians please see my notes above "Can I make panna cotta without gelatine?"
🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post
For the Pâte Sablée cookie base
Making this Pâte Sablée cookie is totally optional. I love the extra layer of crunchy texture with the creamy Panna cotta, but it is also totally fine to skip it and serve your Panna cotta on a plate instead. Without the cookie, your Panna cotta will be totally gluten-free!
- Flour: I am using pastry flour, feel free to use All-purpose flour, it can't find pastry flour in your local store.
- Almond: Some Pâte Sablée recipes contain almonds, some don't, I prefer mine with almond flour from a taste and texture point of view. Pâte Sablée with almond flour is slightly crispier with some marzipan taste. It is worth buying good quality ground almonds, without skin. Can be substituted with an equal amount of all-purpose flour
- Sugar: This sweet shortcrust pastry is made with a small amount of icing sugar that makes the tart case sweet but not overly sweet.
- Salt: An essential ingredient in most dessert recipes. Balances flavor and enhances other ingredients. This is sweet shortcrust cookie dough and I just love that extra very mild salty kick at the end
- Butter: Use always unsalted as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using high-quality 82% fat content European-style butter in all my recipes. While in most of the recipes butter needs to be at room temperature, this is an exception and you have to take it very seriously. The butter needs to be chilled, which means take the butter out of the fridge, cut it into cubes then place it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before using it
- Egg: Room temperature as always
- White chocolate: The cookies are brushed with a small amount of melted white chocolate. It has two functions: 1. add a layer on the cookie so it won´t get soggy from the panna cotta 2. grated coconut better sticks to the cookie
- Shredded Coconut: The cookies are hinted with a generous amount of shredded coconut, it will give flavor as well as a layer on the cookie under the panna cotta
🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post
👩🍳 How to make this recipe
1. How to make Coconut Panna cotta
Making Panna cotta is shockingly easy! Once you try it, I can guarantee that you will make it over and over again, it is so quick and simple.
- Soak gelatin sheets in cold water in a small bowl
- Heat coconut milk with sugar over medium heat until just simmering and sugar fully dissolves
- Remove the saucepan from the heat, squeeze excess water from gelatine sheets and stir them into the coconut milk mixture
That´s it! I told you, making panna cotta is shockingly easy and it is even dairy-free.
💡 Top Tip: You can replace gelatin sheet with gelatin powder easily. 1 gelatin sheet is equal to 1.7g so to substitute 4 sheets, you will need about 7 g of gelatin powder. Use the gelatin powder according to the instructions on the package
2. How to make Passion fruit compote
Making the passion fruit puree compote for this coconut panna cotta is also super quick and simple and the process is basically very similar to making the panna cotta part.
- Soak gelatin sheets in cold water
- Run passion fruit puree through a sieve to get rid of most of the seeds. Keep in a few only
- Heat passion fruit puree with the sugar over medium heat until just simmering and sugar fully dissolves
- Remove the saucepan from the heat, squeeze excess water from gelatine sheets and stir them into the passion fruit puree
💡 Top Tip: Adjust the sugar quantity to the sweetness of your passion fruit puree
3. How to assemble
The assembling process is a super easy but step-by-step process. Make sure you leave each layer in the freezer to set before proceeding to the next one so they won´t melt together
- Prepare the coconut panna cotta part as per the recipe
- Prepare the passion fruit part as per the recipe
- Since both the panna cotta and the passion fruit part contains gelatin, you have to be careful not to let them fully set before assembling in the mold, so stir them occasionally
- Grab your Silikomart Color mold and let´s start the assembling process
- Pipe the white part (coconut panna cotta) into the very middle of each cavity
- Then pipe some more coconut panna cotta into the outer circle
- Place the mold into the freezer for 15 min so that the coconut part will set before proceeding to the next step
- Leave the rest of the coconut cream at room temp and stir it occasionally so it won´t set
- Once the coconut part is fully set in the freezer, proceed with piping the passion fruit part on top
- Freeze the mold again now for 30 minutes
- Make sure you occasionally stir the remaining coconut part so it won´t set while a mold is in the freezer
- Once the passion fruit part fully sets in the freezer, proceed with piping the remaining white (coconut) part on top
- Let the entire mold chill in the freezer for min 6h, overnight is even better
- After the products are fully frozen, gently but firmly release them from the mold. Make sure you press the middle part, particularly so it won´t be stuck into the mold
💡 Top Tip: If you are making this panna cotta in a glass, the assembling process is similar, make sure you wait in between the layers. Obviously, you won´t need to freeze it, it is enough if you chill it, as you will be eating it out of the glass you assembled in.
4. How to make Pâte Sablée cookie "serving plate" for the panna cotta
Making the Pâte Sablée cookie for this Passion Fruit Coconut Panna cotta is totally optional. Often, panna cotta is served on a plate, but I really enjoy a layer of delicious crunchy buttery cookies under the dreamy creamy Panna cotta. Make sure you check out my Ultimate Pâte Sablée Guide which explains everything about how to make sweet shortcrust including ingredients, technique, equipment, and even more.
For the cookie base, all you need is 6 cookies that are larger in diameter than the size of the panna cotta. I suggest baking the cookies in between two perforated baking mats so they don´t puff up during baking, check it out here: Perforated “air” baking mat.
Once cookies are baked, melt a small amount of white chocolate, brush one side of the cookies and hint with shredded coconut. Let chocolate set on the cookies before using it as a "serving plate" for the panna cotta.
💡 Top Tip: Place frozen panna cotta on top of the sable cookie and let it get unfrozen in the fridge. Once the panna cotta is unfrozen, you won´t be able to move it onto the "cookie plate"
🥣 Equipment notes
You can totally use a glass to make panna cotta, however, if you want to take your panna cotta to the next level I suggest you invest in a mold, like the one I use to make this wonderful pattern between the coconut and passion fruit layer.
The product I am using is a rather affordable mold from Silikomart called Mini Color. It is perfect to make panna cotta or even mini mousse cakes, I am very pleased with it! It is super easy to release the frozen product from the mold, but make sure that 1. the product has to be fully frozen 2. you have to press it gently and evenly, particularly the middle part
🍮 More Dessert recipes
Coconut Panna cotta with Passion fruit
Equipment
- Silikomart mini Color mold
Ingredients
For the coconut part
- 400 g (5 cups) Coconut puree thick, high fat (22-24%), not the watery one
- 80 g (⅓ cups) Granulated sugar
- 4 Gelatine sheets 1.7g gelatin / sheet
For the passion fruit part
- 250 g (1 cups) Passion fruit puree fresh or frozen, seeds removed, leave in only a few seeds
- 100 g (½ cups) Granulated sugar
- 4 Gelatine sheets 1.7g gelatin / sheet
Sable cookie (optional)
- 45 g (⅓ cups) Icing sugar
- 115 g (1 cups) AP flour
- 15 g (2 tablespoon) Almond flour
- Pinch of salt
- 55 g (¼ cups) Unsalted butter very cold
- 25 g Egg approx. half egg
- White chocolate melted
- Shredded coconut
US customary cup measurement is an indicative figure only. Measure the ingredients with a digital scale by weight (gram). Baking is art but also science which requires precision and accuracy.
Instructions
Sable cookie
- Check out my pate sablee recipe to make the cookies in here
- Once cookies are baked and cooled to room temperature, melt a small amount of white chocolate and brash the cookies with it
- Dust with shredded coconut and set aside
Panna cotta
- Prepare the coconut part: Soak gelatine sheets into cold water
- Heat coconut puree and sugar until simmering and sugar dissolves
- Remove saucepan from heat, squeeze excess water from gelatine sheets and stir them into the coconut mixture. Set it aside
- Prepare the passion fruit part: Soak gelatin sheets into cold water
- Run passion fruit puree through a sieve to get rid of most of the seeds. Keep in a few only
- Heat passion fruit puree with sugar until just simmering and sugar fully dissolves
- Remove saucepan from heat, squeeze excess water from gelatine sheets and stir them into the passion fruit puree. Set it aside
Assemble
- Since both coconut part and the passion fruit part contains gelatine, you have to be careful not letting them fully set before fully assembling in the mold, so don´t let them fully cool. Stir them occasionally
- Grab your Silikomart Color mold and let´s start the assembling process. Pipe the white part (coconut panna cotta) into the middle of each cavity, then pipe some more coconut panna cotta into the outer circle
- Place mold in to the freezer for 15 min so that the coconut part can set before proceeding to the next step. Leave the rest of the coconut cream at room temp and stir it occasionally so it won´t set
- Once coconut part fully sets in the freezer, proceed with piping the passion fruit part on top
- Freeze the mold again now for 30 minutes. Make sure you occasionally stir the remaining coconut part so it won´t set while mold is in the freezer
- Once passion fruit part fully sets in freezer, proceed with piping the remaining white (coconut) part on top. Let it chill in the freezer for min 6h, overnight is even better
- After panna cottas are fully frozen, gently but firmly release them from the mold. Make sure you press the middle particularly so it won´t stuck into the mold
- Place each panna cotta onto the coconut sable cookie while panna cotta is frozen
- Let the panna cotta thaw either at room temp or in the fridge
- Store refridgarated for 2-3 days
Abir Ammacha
I’ve tried your recipe and it was just amazing 🤤
Thank you