Recipes: Lemon thyme panna cotta with raspberry granité

Change this recipe according to the season and you'll always have a make-ahead dinner party dessert with wow-factor

• 2 leaves gelatine (or 2 tsp powdered)
• 600ml double cream
• 150ml whole milk
• 1 bunch lemon thyme (some supermarkets stock this)
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 4 punnets raspberries
• 4 tbsp framboise or Chambord
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• white chocolate , for grating over (optional)

  

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until it is floppy. Bring the cream and milk to a boil, add the lemon thyme (save a few leaves to add to the raspberries), take off the heat and leave to infuse for 5 mins. If your lemon thyme doesn't smell particularly strong then gently bash the leaves to release some of the aroma and flavour (don't go overboard though or the flavour will be too strong).
  2. Add the caster sugar to the hot cream mixture and stir until it dissolves (the base of the pan will feel gritty until it does) then stir in the soaked gelatine (shake off any excess water). If you are using powdered gelatine sprinkle it onto the cream mixture before the sugar, leave for a few seconds and then stir it in. Pour the lot through a fine sieve into a jug.
  3. Divide the mixture between 6 martini glasses, cover with clingfilm, put them on a tray and then into the fridge to chill and set. If you don't put them on a tray make sure they are level, from past experience I can tell you that the topping won't look as impressive on a sloping surface.
  4. Pick 48 raspberries out of the whole amount and put them in a bowl with the framboise or Chambord and reserved lemon thyme leaves. You'll be using these whole so don't squash them.
  5. For the granité, put the remaining raspberries in another bowl with the icing sugar and 4 tbsp water, cover tightly with clingfilm and put in a warm place (about 50-60C) for an hour to encourage the raspberries to give up their juice.
  6. Drain through a fine sieve, gently pressing them to release their juice, into a freezer- proof container and freeze until solid. Stir once or twice while it's freezing if you want coarse crystals (if you leave it to freeze without stirring then the block will be more solid and you'll get a finer ice once you start scraping). You won't end up with a huge amount of liquid so don't panic, you'll be scraping this into shavings of granité rather than serving it in big scoops.
  7. To serve, arrange 8 raspberries on top of each panna cotta. Standing them up neatly will make the dish look more impressive. .
  8. Take the granité out of the freezer and scrape the surface into shavings. Top each glass with a heap of shavings. Grate over some white chocolate if you want and serve straight away.

  Other flavours

  The panna cotta can also be infused with other flavours, such as basil or lemongrass, and you can try using champagne for the granité.

  Per serving

  998 kcalories, protein 88,3g, carbohydrate 36,3g, fat 55 g, saturated fat 30,7g, fibre 2,5g, salt 0,94 g