Panna Cotta Two Ways

March 3, 2021
Passion Fruit Gelée with Lime Panna Cotta +
Green Tea Panna Cotta
Pg. 213 + 214
Samuel, Season 2 (runner up!) + Addison, Season 4 (winner)
70 + 71 down…28 to go!

Yep, I decided to combine two MasterChef Junior desserts into one blog post, and I’m going to be completely transparent as to my reason why: I’m getting tired. I knew this was a big undertaking, and even though the end is in sight, I can feel myself burning out a little bit.

I think I may just be outgrowing this challenge I set for myself. That’s not to say I don’t have so much more to learn, but I can feel my creativity wanting to come out more everyday by developing my own recipes.

I do 2-3 MCJ recipes a week, and while that might not seem like a lot, trust me, it is. Most of them are very time-and labor-intensive. Plus, tracking down all the ingredients is a whole other big task. With the hours I spend on my MCJ challenge every week, I’d rather be creating my own recipes at this point.

All that being said, I am determined to finish this project I set out to do 10 months ago. I will see it to the end, and I’m still on track to finish in under a year! For the few of you who have been reading my blog, thank you for following along! It means the world to me. And please continue to send good vibes for my completion of the final recipes!

Now onto my thoughts about the Panna Cottas:

So even though these were two separate recipes, they were both presented in the finales and Addison, who made the Green Tea Panna Cotta, ended up winning with hers.

Let’s start with the Passion Fruit Gelée. This dessert screams summer, because it’s so fresh and light. I loved everything about it…but I did run into a small problem. I couldn’t find passion fruit purée at any of my normal speciality stores, and since I didn’t feel like going on a wild goose chase, I decided to make my own. I picked up a single passion fruit at Central Market, and they are six dollars a piece here in Texas! This is a huge bummer because I used to have them growing in a tree in my backyard when I lived in Hawaii.

Since I didn’t want to spend a ton on passion fruit, I only bought one. Unfortunately, I severely underestimated how much purée I could make with just one fruit. I didn’t even have enough to make one glass of gelée, whereas this recipe claims it serves 4. So I improvised. Instead of using a regular glass, I used a shot glass. Can you believe I spent hours getting the ingredients and making this dessert only to only have one tiny shot glass to show for it? That was definitely a bummer, but you live and you learn, right?

This dessert was topped with gingersnap crumbs. Gingersnaps were my grandpa’s signature cookie he made for us every Christmas. The smell and taste of them always make me miss him, but in the best way. Overall, it was an incredible dessert that was filled with nostalgia for me.

Here’s something I learned about while making Addison’s Green Tea Panna Cotta: matcha is currently priced at $119/lb at specialty grocery stores. I am SO thankful that Central Market sells in bulk. I was able to get only a tablespoon, which cost $1.50, and was all I needed. I seriously saved so much since I didn’t have to buy a prepackaged bag of Matcha. Shout out to Central Market, the real MVP of this story.

One thing I really love about Addison’s dish is she added pocky. Pocky is a thin, crispy biscuit dipped in various flavors, usually in chocolate. That’s another thing we ate in Hawaii all the time. I thought it was fun that both dishes included flavors and ingredients I was surrounded by growing up. It got me feeling nostalgic, and if you’ve been around here a while, you know that was alright with me 🙂

I personally do not care for matcha…and I hate that about myself. I want to like it! I see so many pretty food and drink pictures on IG using matcha that I would love to try, but I guess I just haven’t developed the taste for it yet. Maybe one day though (because taste buds change, don’t ever let anyone try to tell you different).

So even though I wasn’t a fan of the matcha, I still enjoyed all the pocky. Plus, I had never made panna cotta before now, so it was fun experimenting! Even if I didn’t get to enjoy a lot of it afterwards.

I only have three more MasterChef Junior dessert recipes to do! Stay tuned for the final three.

All my love,
Dani, a big tid