for christmas we traditionally have fondue on the 24th just with my immediate family and on the 25th when the rest of the family is here we have roasted chicken with bread dumplings. for dessert it is my job to come up with something. last year i made a Chocolate raspberry tarte and 2 years ago we had a chocolate panna cotta. this year i kind of flipped the latter around and i made a strawberry panna cotta with a base of chocolate sauce. something fruity, but of course chocolate couldn’t be missed ;) you can prepare it the day before – in fact you actually should since the panna cotta needs time to set – and therefore have time on the big day for other things.

ingredients (4 glasses)

• 200 g frozen strawberries, thawed
• 100 g chocolate
• 100 g + 300 g heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean
• 30 g icing sugar
• 3 sheets white gelatin

for the chocolate sauce break up chocolate. heat up 100 g cream and melt chocolate in it while stirring. let cool down a bit, stir every once in a while. divide onto glasses – easiest is to use a container with a muzzle, that way you won’t be smearing the sides of the glasses if you use tall ones. put in fridge for at least 2 hours. the chocolate ganache should considerably thicken, if it’s still too thin, it will mix with the panna cotta when you pour it on top.

cut vanilla bean lenghtwise, scrape out the seeds. in a pot bring rest of cream, sugar, vanilla seeds and bean to boil and let simmer at low heat for 8 – 10 min.

in the meantime soak gelatin in cold water for about 5 min. finely puree strawberries with a handheld blender. remove vanilla cream from stove top, mix in strawberry puree. squeeze out gelatin and dissolve in hot vanilla strawberry cream while stirring (important, otherwise you get clumps).

let the cream cool down for about 30 min (otherwise it will be too hot and liquidize the chocolate throught the heat), divide onto the glasses – again use a container with a muzzle when using tall glasses or a laddle if you use wide ones. put in fridge for at least 4 hours or better over night.

Filed under: chocolate, sweets Tagged: chocolate, dessert, panna cotta, strawberries, sweets