Do you have empty PET bottles at home? Don’t discard them! Instead, use their bottom parts as a mold for pretty gelatin or agar agar based desserts: the shape looks like a flower!
Since spring is blossoming at the moment, I suggest trying this easy recipe for delicious d strawberry panna cotta. Panna cotta is a popular Northern Italian sweet that literally translates to “cooked cream”. mycentraljersey.com It’s served chilled and is therefore a perfect dessert for warmer seasons. The classic flavouring is cream and vanilla, but in this rendition I opted for coconut milk and strawberry instead.
Recipe for Strawberry Coconut Panna Cotta in a PET Bottle Mold (serves 6)
- 6 empty 500ml PET bottles with a flower shaped bottom, for example Schweppes
- 250ml coconut milk (Not to be confused with coconut water! Can be substituted with cream and vanilla essence to get a more classic panna cotta.)
- 4 Tbs sugar
- 9g sheet gelatin = 5 sheets
- 1 cup finely pureed strawberries, sieved
- optional: milk
- First, prepare the molds. Cut away the bottom part of the bottles and wash them thoroughly.
- Heat coconut milk and sugar in a pan and stir.
- Meanwhile, soak the gelatin sheets in a bowl with cold water for 3-5 minutes.
- When the sugar has dissolved, turn off the stove and add the drained gelatin. Stir until it melts down.
- Add the mixture to the pureed strawberries and whisk together until it’s well incorporated.
- Pour the liquid into the prepared PET bottle molds. Cover the molds and let the panna cotta set in the refrigerator overnight.
- To unmold, loosen the edges with a knife and then dip the mold in a bowl with warm water for a few seconds. Be careful not to dip in for too long, the panna cotta melts easily.
- Turn the mold over and place it on the serving plate. Shake gently until the panna cotta releases.
- Panna cotta is commonly served with fruit coulis, but since this version is already quite sweet in itself I decided to add plain cold milk. It complements the flavour and acts as a nice colour contrast.
Buon appetito!
That is so clever, i will sure thry this method as it looks so so beautiful.
Haha! So cool!
now, why didn’t I think of that before?! :)
Soooo pretty! What an awesome idea!
I loooooooooooooooooove your blog! I never, ever, met anyone so creative.
Amazing, the things you do!
Congratulations for all the prety and imaginative thinks you publish.
Big kiss from Portugal.
Wow, thanks Rute!
How cute! I really like your style and these strawberry pannacotta flowers are great!
Hehe, once again, I am amazed by your creativity. Such a cute yet simple idea!
How beautiful this is! I absolutely LOVE your site! I’m going to make this soon!
I’m amazed about your creativity and also the way how you present your ideas in a most beautiful way!
Therefore I linked to you from my blog.
But then somebody mentioned (in my German entry) that if you fill something warm into PET bottles (or even parts of PET bottles ;-)) they emit softening agents and something called Bisphenol-A into the food which doesn’t seem to be such a good idea.
Another commenter suggested to use a plastic wrap (made for food!) to use as separator, but none of has has tried it yet.
Thanks for linking, Susann! And thanks for mentioning the health risk as well, I didn’t think about this at all. I guess you can overcome the problem by either letting the mixture cool down before pouring or by laying the mold out with a plastic wrap like the comment suggested :-)
Hey, I’ve been doing some research and found that PET bottles don’t contain Bisphenol-A, so in that sense, it’s safe.
Cheers
Hey Jojo! I miss your posts :( is everything OK? I keep coming to your blog to see what you have come up to lately ^^ I hope everything is fine and you’ll be back soon :D
Hi Debora. Thanks for asking, everything’s fine. I was just kind of busy lately, but today I published a new post after this long pause as you’ve probably noticed :-D
Jojo, you are true to your words when you said you like visually pleasing things… and you are exceptionally creative! I would have never thought of this! Can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeves :) You have a new follower in me!
“Thanks for linking, Susann!”
Don’t mention it, I never would have thought about the topic of health risks myself ;-))
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your ideas, they’re soo great!
Happened to find you blog through dessertstalking.This is ingenious !! Recycle and reuse at its best :P ! I’ll now be obsessed with looking @ the bottom of different bottles to use as molds :D Plus panna cotta is so good :D !!
The teapot is gorgeous! Thanks so much for sharing it!!!
awesome stuf…..am surely gonna try it…smart idea..!