White Chocolate Pannacotta with Raspberry Coulis

Pannacotta has to be one of the easiest desserts you can make. The name means cooked cream, and that's exactly what it is! You can flavour it in any way you want, with vanilla, coffee, cardamom...in my case, white chocolate! Now I have to apologise, as I forgot to take a picture of the finished coulis, but I assure you the bright pink of the coulis looks extremely pretty against the delicate, pale pannacotta. Moreover, its sharpness cuts beautifully through the richness of the dessert. Give it a go and let me know what you think!

INGREDIENTS (for 6 people)

• 300 ml double cream
• 180 ml milk
• 150 gr of (good quality) white chocolate
• 75 gr caster sugar
• 4 gelatine leaves

FOR THE COULIS

• 300 gr of frozen raspberries
• 2 tablespoons of icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

In a small saucepan, put the cream, sugar and chopped chocolate. Heat it up gently, stirring from time to time, until the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is about to boil. Stop yourself from eating up all of this heavenly soup.

Put the gelatine leaves in a little bowl filled with ice-cold water and leave them to stand for a couple of minutes. Squeeze them to get rid of the excess water, then add them to the cooked cream (which you will  have left to cool a little. Never add gelatine to boiling liquids as its thickening properties will be significantly diminished. Check me out). Spoon the mixture in two six ramekins, cover with clingfilm and let it set in the fridge for at least six hours, or overnight if you can.

On to the coulis: whizz your raspberries with the icing sugar and a few drops of lemon in a food processor. Taste and adjust the 'seasoning' - it may be you need more sugar or lemon according to the sharpness of the fruit. When you are happy with the taste, strain your purée through a sieve, pushing it with the aid of the back of a spoon. Done!

Take the pannacotta out of the fridge about 30 minutes before serving it, and spoon the coulis on top, taking the rest to the table in case your guests want to help themselves to more. This is an ideal dessert to make it advance. Don't be fooled by the small portions - this is a really rich pudding and you'll find that one ramekin is more than enough. Unless you are my boyfriend, in which case you'll find that you'll need three.