Second Helpings #07 - Malted Peanut Panacotta

Simple panacotta with chocolate crumble and salted caramel

Before I get to this weeks bonus recipe let me introduce you to Second Helpings To differentiate these posts from the posts which free subscribers get, from here on out these paid posts will be labelled as Second Helpings.

This really wasn’t meant to be content, the first time I made the dish I didn’t even write anything down, it was a kind of fly by the seat of your pants type situation. My partners parents were staying with us and as it had been his fathers birthday that week I was tasked with making something celebratory for dessert. With the time to make something very minimal I settled on something that would be easy to make but had the potential for lots of fun flavours and textures. The central element was a simple panacotta infused with salted peanuts and flavoured with a little malt syrup, very warm and toasty. To make the panacotta more of a fully formed dessert I went with a cocoa crumble mixed together with some roasted and salted peanuts. When I realised I had basically started to make something clearly inspired by a snickers bar, I made some salted caramel to really cement that idea. The end result was simple but utterly delicious and something I had to share with you guys. Obviously that meant I had to make the dish again, its a very tough life, mainly so I actually had a record of what I made and pictures of the process.

The panacotta is pretty straightforward made with a mix of milk and cream it is set with just enough gelatin so that it holds its shape, but just barely. It has a glorious wobble and gives in to the barest amount of pressure from your spoon. To flavour the panacotta the dairy is infused with roasted peanuts and then sweetened with a mixture of brown sugar and malt syrup. The malt syrup adds just enough malt flavour to add a warming undertone to the whole dish. If you can’t get your hands on malt syrup you could also use honey or simply replace it with a little more brown sugar.

The cocoa crumble is a great contrast of textures to the creamy panacotta, its dark and just a little salty. I like to make it with black cocoa which has quite a specific taste and an obviously dark colour. The dish will happily work with whatever cocoa powder you have on hand. The caramel makes more than you’ll need but if you’re going to the effort of making a caramel from scratch you should always make enough that you can eat with a spoon when the mood strikes.