Vegan Panna Cotta Easy Italian Recipe

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert traditionally made of cooked dairy cream, sugar, gelatine and vanilla. It’s widely popular all over Italy – and around the world – where it’s served with 3 main toppings: caramel, chocolate and mixed berries. Panna cotta has a pudding-like consistency, not too soft and not too firm. It can be eaten with a spoon, but not like a soup, more like sweet pudding. When you put it in your mouth, it should feel silky and smooth, and not creamy like a custard. We tested this recipe 7 times to get the right texture and consistency. In the end, even my very-traditional non-vegan Italian dad could not tell the difference between our vegan panna cotta and the one from our local restaurant.For other delicious Italian desserts, check out our vegan strawberry tart, our no-bake no-cashew vegan cheesecake, or our vegan vanilla cake.

Ingredients & Substitutions

Cream: if you can find it, use vegan whipping cream, without whipping it. If you cannot find that, go for soy cream, rice cream, or coconut cream. Alternatively use coconut milk. To make a lighter, low-fat vegan panna cotta you can simply replace cream with your favourite plant-milk.Milk: any type of plant milk will work. We like rice, soy and almond for this recipe.Sugar: any sugar will work, but to give it its classic white colour, you’ll need white sugar. You can also use syrups like maple, agave, or other.Vanilla: you can use vanilla extract or the seeds of a vanilla bean.Agar powder: we use this as a substitute for gelatine, it works perfectly if you get the quantities right, but don’t worry, we are here for that.

IMPORTANT: always read the instructions on the back your agar powder package before using it. For most agar brands, our quantities are correct. However, we noticed that with some brands, you’ll need to use more or less agar agar. The quantities that you need to use are always indicated in the back of the agar powder package.

What is agar agar?

We tested 7 different panna cotta recipes with different quantities of agar powder to find the right amount. We tried making vegan panna cotta with cornstarch, but it really doesn’t taste or feels the same as the real Italian recipe. With cornstarch it’s more like a vanilla custard pudding. So we do not recommend cornstarch for this recipe.

Equipment

Sauce pan + whiskSilicon molds or small glass jarsPrecision scale to weigh the agar agar.

Mistakes I made

Not reading the agar instructions: please always read the instructions on the back of your package. I noticed that some brands require you to use a lot less agar powder than the brand I used, so to avoid panna cotta that is hard as a stone, always follow instructions of your agar manufacturer.Too much agar agar: in mosto cases you should only use only 1g of agar powder for 100g of liquid. The first time I made this recipe I used 3g per 100g of liquid and the panna cotta turned out as hard as a stone. Note that 1 US tsp of agar agar is equal to 3g.

Tips

Boil 4 times: the best way to know that the agar powder has been activated is to bring the liquid to a boil for 4 times. If agar powder doesn’t boil long enough, it will not thicken your panna cotta. Adjust the sugar: depending on the type of cream or milk that you use, you might need to adjust our sugar quantities. For example, if you use an already sweetened vegan whipping cream, or a sweetened plant-milk, it is possible that you need a lot less sugar than mentioned in our recipe. Taste your liquids, then adjust.

Frequently asked questions

Storage

You can store our vegan panna cotta without gelatine in the refrigerator for up to 3 to 4 days. We do not recommend freezing it, due to the fact that agar powder will lose its structure when frozen.

Variations

Mango: peel and cut the pulp of a mango into dice, then blend it till very smooth. Drizzle on top of the panna cotta. This is especially delicious if your panna cotta base is made with coconut milk. Caramel: this is actually how original panna cotta was first served. You can either make home made caramel or drizzle with store bough, just read the label to make sure it’s vegan.Chocolate: melt about 7 oz or 200 g of dark chocolate bain-marie or in the microwave on low heat, then add about 80 g of your favourite plant milk and stir till smooth. Drizzle over your panna cotta.