Soy Milk Panna Cotta with Crushed Blackberries and Vanilla Muscat Sauce

Well, it's been a rather long time, hasn't it? (Just who I am asking, I don't know). In all fairness, I have been pretty busy with my love, the Hot Yam!, but that's no excuse! I have been reminded about my failure to keep up with this thing by many people...I am ashamed!

This next recipe I made a little while ago when I was visiting the parents and had access to free (for me) dessert wine. I have to say, it was decent, a solid 7/10, but not outstanding. I was so excited to make it because it looks so beautiful, but I should have known better when I saw "agar" in the recipe.

Now "panna cotta" translates as "cooked cream" and is typically made with cream, milk, sugar, and gelatin. In other words, it's not particularly vegan. To make the dairy and gelatin-free version, I mixed together soy milk, sugar, and vanilla, added some agar, and poured the whole lot into ramekins. I've always found agar strangely more gelatinous than gelatin. It's also a little disconcerting to eat the stuff we grow yeast on in biology class. However, it does an amazing job of setting things, and when I removed the panna cotta from the fridge an hour later, they looked frighteningly perfect, and definitely non-vegan.

Next, I made two sauces. The first was basically crushed blackberries, stewed slightly so the juices started to thicken. The second was some parentally-donated dessert wine, pear jam (should've been apricot), and some vanilla. Yum.

In the end, it was pretty good, and really straightforward, but give me a brownie or a lemon square any day.