As you know, my family and I recently travelled to Japan for the second time in less than 3 years. We absolutely adore this country: its culture, its cities, its scenery and… its food. One of the the things we discovered this year was sakura, as a flavour I mean. I had no idea that cherry blossoms would taste so good… something between a flower and a cherry! The first day of our holiday, I bought a sakura flavoured soy milk and I was hooked. I had to buy the essence!! Luckily, you don’t have to go all the way to Japan to buy sakura essence as you can easily find it on Amazon. I also found some salt pickled cherry blossoms that look and taste delightful.
I bet you didn’t know that sakura were actually edible! In Japan, they are preserved with salt and used in various dishes. Well, the first thing I made with these amazing ingredients was panna cotta. Something like Japan meets Italy. 😉 It tasted so good that my husband had 2 in a row! And now I am already thinking of what to make next!
Sakura Panna Cotta
Ingredients
- 300 ml – 10 oz. heavy cream
- 100 ml – 3.5 oz. milk
- 80 gms – 2.7 oz. sugar
- 3 sheets 6 gms – 0.2 oz. of gelatine or 2 tsp of gelatine powder
- 2 tsp of sakura essence or to taste
- Pink food colouring optional
- 4 salt pickled sakura optional
Instructions
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Put the gelatine sheets in cold water for 10 minutes.
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Put the milk, cream and sugar in a pot and heat it on the fire, stirring gently until the sugar melts.
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Add the pink colour and sakura essence, and mix.
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Squeeze the extra water out of the gelatine leaves and add them into the hot cream mixture. Stir well to dissolve.
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Pour into your serving glasses and keep them in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight to set.
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To remove the salt from the sakura flowers, gently rinse them and soak them in cold water for at least 30 minutes.
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Remove from the water, shape the petals nicely, and place each flower on a paper towel. Cover with another sheet of paper towel and gently pat dry.
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Top the panna cotta with a sakura flour just before serving.
*In the spirit of full disclosure, this post contains some affiliate links, which means that I may get a commission if you decide to purchase anything from Amazon.com. I only recommend products that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands.
Oh, I am intrigued!
I went to amazon, but some people say that this essence doesn’t taste like the “real thing” available in Japan.
however, I see you really enjoyed it, right? Did you notice too much difference between the stuff available over there? It is a bit pricey, and I wonder how many other recipes I could use it for…. any advice?
Hi Sally. It was ok, but you need to use quite a bit of it to get the right flavour. I used 2 teaspoons in the panna cotta recipe… and not a few drops as the bottle said. However, the taste was great. 🙂
I am developing more recipes with it… made cookies and/or ice cream. If you google it, you will fond a few ideas on how to use the essence. Hope it helps! 🙂
That makes sense that you had to use more – actually, after I left the comment I saw that amazon also sells a sakura paste, that reviewers say has a stronger flavor. I thought that it could be something fun to get and probably use for a panna cotta too.
I am really curious about the taste…. and will be following your ‘experiments” with it….
if I get the paste, I’ll report back, ok?
BTW, what a lovely touch the spoons and table cloth matching the dessert… 😉
This is so tempting. I will definitely try this recipe. Thanks for sharing this post