Berry-lemon coconut milk panna cottas with frozen Oregon berries! Dairy-free, Paleo recipe

Berry-lemon coconut milk panna cottas with frozen Oregon berries! Dairy-free, Paleo recipe

• 3.31.2016

I love harvesting my own food by season, and over the summer we picked tons of raspberries, blackberries, marionberries, and blueberries at one of our favorite farms. Now it's early spring and not much is growing just yet... but I froze most of the berries we picked last summer and I came up with this recipe for using frozen berries!

I had never made panna cotta at all until a few years ago, and now it's my go-to fancy-looking dessert! I'm getting creative with what I put in it, and wanted to try it with frozen berries and lemon for an extra special citrus/winter spin. (See my basic Paleo panna cotta with candied ginger here. This recipe makes a little bigger servings and of course has lemon in it! As well as the fruit integration technique (dropping berries into the dishes, but it felt fancy at the time).)

I love having a use for the frozen berries that I picked, but of course you can also buy locally grown frozen berries at specialty food stores.

Berry-lemon coconut milk panna cotta

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cans (13.5 oz each) full fat coconut milk
• 3 tbsp honey or other sweetener (I used xylitol this time)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp unflavored gelatin from grassfed cows (this brand is great, or this one which has higher protein content)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Zest from 1 lemon
• About 3/4 cup frozen berries (I used raspberries and blueberries--great with the lemon flavor!)

Makes 4 servings.

Instructions:

1. Heat coconut milk into a small saucepan on low heat. Sprinkle the powdered gelatin on top and allow it to "bloom" for about 5 minutes. 
2. Whisk together saucepan mixture with honey or xylitol, vanilla, and lemon juice until everything is completely blended. Do not boil.
3. Pour evenly into four dessert dishes or jars.
4. Add not quite 1/4 cup of frozen berries of choice into dishes. Some will sink to the bottom, others will stay closer to the top.
5. Cool in refrigerator about 4 hours or until completely set. Once set, distribute lemon zest on tops.

Serve cold. Feel extra fancy despite how easy that was to make!!

Now that winter is over I'm ready for summer again so I can pick more berries!!