Matcha Mango Panna Cotta
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The subtle matcha green tea works beautifully with the tangy, mango in this creamy Tropical Mango Matcha Panna Cotta all topped with diced pineapple.
The other night we met friends for dinner at a favorite Italian place in Little Italy called Monellos. For dessert I had the most delicious chocolate panna cotta. It was so rich, the texture was creamy and the simplicity of it made me want to recreate it at home for a dessert. I had always thought of panna cotta as a loose pudding, flan-type dessert, but saw it on another table and asked the waiter what it was. I’ve since had it twice there and decided to make it here for you guys, but in a more tropical flavored way.
Although I ran into a few problems that had me stumped. I wanted to use a fresh pineapple I had for the fruit base and do a second layer using matcha powder.
Matcha is a green tea powder and is heavenly in ice cream and cookies too like my No Churn Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream and Matcha Green Tea Almond Shortbread Cookies. The problem I had was my pineapple puree was not firming up. Why was my pineapple puree not gelling? Well after doing a little research on why after two pineapples and packets of gelatin my panna cotta would not get firm and gel together, I found out this little nugget of truth.
A little background – gelatin is a processed version of collagen. Unlike most other fruit, pineapples contain an enzyme called bromelain, that breaks up the gelatin into its amino acid building blocks. So, in other words, the bromelain will not allow your jello to become solid. If you use canned pineapple, you can combine the two without a problem because during the canning process the pineapple gets heated and the bromelain breaks apart, is no longer active, and can’t attack the gelatin’s amino acids. I preferred to use fresh so there you go. I make these mistakes so you don’t have too!
Needless to say I fast tracked back to the market one more time and picked out another tropical favorite of mine the mango. I used that instead of the pineapple and also picked up more gelatine.
Cut mango and purée in food processor. Measure out 1 2/3 cup and reserve balance for other use. Place mango purée back in processor. Sprinkle tablespoon of gelatin powder over hot water in a small bowl and allow to soften for a minute or two. Whisk to dissolve. Allow to come to room temperature and pour in with mango purée. Process with a few pulses and set pour into clean small glasses or bowls. Refrigerate for 1 hour to set.
In a small bowl whisk together the matcha green tea powder and powdered sugar. In a saucepan add the heavy cream, sugar and matcha mixture. Stir to dissolve the sugar and matcha and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and allow to come to room temperature. Again, sprinkle tablespoon of gelatin powder over hot water in a small bowl and allow to soften for a minute or two. Whisk to dissolve. Allow to come to room temperature and pour into the matcha cream mixture, stirring to mix thoroughly.
Pour this mixture over the set mango purée, return to refrigerator and chill until completely firm about 2 hours. Dice the pineapple and top each chilled panna cotta and serve.
Now this time it worked! I thought it would pair nicely with the matcha green tea and I was right. The subtle, tasty green tea flavor works beautifully on the palate and the tangy mango offsets it nicely.
I also used the diced pineapple I had leftover from my original idea for garnish. This stuff is heaven, trust me.
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Matcha Mango Panna Cotta
Ingredients
- Mango Layer
- 1 2/3 cup puréed mango 3 large mangos
- 1 tbsp gelatine
- 1/3 cup hot water
- Matcha Cream Layer
- 1 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp matcha green tea powder
- 1 tbsp gelatine
- 1/3 cup hot water
- Garnish
- 1 cup diced pineapple
Instructions
- Cut mango and purée in food processor. Measure out 1 2/3 cup and reserve balance for other use. Place mango purée back in processor.
- Sprinkle tablespoon of gelatin powder over hot water in a small bowl and allow to soften for a minute or two. Whisk to dissolve. Allow to come to room temperature and pour in with mango purée. Process with a few pulses and set pour into clean small glasses or bowls. Refrigerate for 1 hour to set.
- In a small bowl whisk together the matcha green tea powder and powdered sugar. In a saucepan add the heavy cream, sugar and matcha mixture. Stir to dissolve the sugar and matcha and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and allow to come to room temperature.
- Again, sprinkle tablespoon of gelatin powder over hot water in a small bowl and allow to soften for a minute or two. Whisk to dissolve. Allow to come to room temperature and pour into the matcha cream mixture, stirring to mix thoroughly.
- Pour this mixture over the set mango purée, return to refrigerator and chill until completely firm about 2 hours.
- Dice the pineapple and top each chilled panna cotta and serve.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
What Matcha did you use for this? And how is it such a blue hue?
Matcha Love Classic, you can see the powder and container here when I also used it in my Matcha Green Tea Almond Shortbread Cookies As for the blue hue, it doesn’t look blue on my screen, but it’s not as bright green due to the cream, more faded green.
So creative, Kevin! Love this…
Thanks Marissa, it’s actually raining here in San Diego! Whoo-hoo!
So fascinating! I love science and good to know for future kitchen endeavors.
It baffled me why the pineapple wouldn’t gel! It killed me that It was wasteful (I actually made smoothies from it) and after I read about it thought I’d share the info!
That is a work of art, Kevin, looks incredible!
Thanks Matt, they were quite tasty! 😉 Have a great weekend. It’s actually raining here in SD (a lot actually), go figure!
What a gorgeous dessert, Kevin! The colors are absolutely striking…and I see that you worked that darn pineapple in there anyways. Take that, bromelain! #WolfpackDetermination
Thanks Dave, couldn’t let my little pineapple dice go to waste! 😉