Recipe by Luke Jefford

A light and floral panna cotta recipe using foraged spring lilac flowers and coconut spiced rum. Lilac flowers work really well in cream based recipes, so it seemed natural to make an Italian inspired ‘cooked cream’. We’ve paired ours with some pine pollen shortbread, but a plain shortbread would be just fine.

Ingredients

• 50g lilac flowers

• 450g double cream

• 450g whole milk

• 100g demerara sugar

• 4 tbsp honey

• 1 vanilla pod seed

• 12g gelatine powder (or vegetarian alternative)

• 1 pinch ground nutmeg

• 50g coconut rum

Method

Step 1

Combine cream, milk and flowers. Leave to infuse in the fridge for 48 hours.

Step 2

Bring all ingredients (except gelatine) to a slow boil. Reduce to the smallest heat and infuse for 30 minutes.

Step 3

Whisk in gelatine.

Step 4

Pass through a fine sieve in to a bowl and place in the fridge.

Step 5

Whisk every 20 minutes until mixture is beginning to thicken (this will help to distribute the vanilla seeds evenly throughout the mix).

Step 6

Set in to your desired bowl and leave to set fully in the fridge.