Hibiscus pannacotta

Despite or perhaps because of my huge cookbook collection, sometimes it feels like I can't see the woods for the trees. I remember seeing a recipe for a vividly pink Pannacotta made with hibiscus flowers, which I thought would be lovely to make if only I still had those dried hibiscus flowers I bought long ago. When looking for something at the back of my cupboard, there they were, long forgotten but not faded into oblivion. So, where's that recipe? The first 5 books at my immediate disposal bore no results and searching through the others would take a week, so I turned to the resource anyone with too much of something does, the Internet. There, on the first google search was a recipe for the very thing on another food blog, called Tastespotting / Very small Anna. Not only did this beautiful site have a simple recipe for this dessert, but an 'unexpected' twist causes the Pannacotta to separate into two distinct layers. So, I had my recipe and a new blog to follow and thank.

You'll find the original recipe here: http://verysmallanna.com/2009/06/unexpected-results/

 The first test to check whether the flowers still had good colouring properties yielded a very vivid red.

 I was a little concerned to note that the flowers didn't produce such a bright colour in the cream and milk mixture, but left to steep for 15 minutes they produced a more subtle, but very pretty pink hue.

 .....Like this.

I halved the recipe to produce enough mixture for two Pannacottas. I think next time, I would add a little more gelatin as they were still very soft in the middle. The taste was slightly sour and sharp from the hibiscus, but creamy and sweet from the cream, milk and sugar which balanced well. Thank you for this great recipe.