Pumpkin Panna Cotta

Happy Halloween!

I adore the run up to Halloween. Black and orange confections start appearing in bakery windows. Spiders and vampires perched on cakes. The seasonal sections of shops go from the bright pinks, blues and yellows of summer to the dark, spooky and mysterious blacks, oranges and purples, holding off the red, greens and sparkles of Christmas. A quick jaunt into town will inevitably lead to you seeing a small child, trailing its parents, swinging a scythe or wearing a witch hat. Large purple bins of pumpkins crop up.

If you want to eat your pumpkins rather than carve them, here is an easy recipe to put together.

Makes 2

Ingredients

125ml semi-skimmed milk
125ml double cream
70gr pumpkin purée
3tbsp pumpkin spice syrup
10gr granulated sugar
1 1/2 level tsp powdered gelantine (around 6-7gr). I used Dr. Oetker powdered gelantine. 1 sachet set around a 570ml of liquid. Half a sachet provided a slightly firm set.

Method

1, Blend the milk, double cream, pumpkin purée, spice syrup and sugar together until smooth. Pass this through a sieve and heat in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
2, Bring it to a gentle simmer and remove from the heat. Whisk briskly and add in the gelatine powder in two or three batches. Carry on whisking until the gelatine has dissolved completely. If the gelatine clumps, set it over a very low heat and whisk briskly. Do not bring to the boil.
3, Pour into two short tumblers, cover with cling film and cool in the fridge until set which will take a couple of hours.

Pumpkin Purée
To make a simple pumpkin purée, divide a small sweet edible pumpkin into 8 pieces and removed the seeds and stringy bits. Steam for 15-20 minutes or until the flesh is soft. Leave to cool, uncovered and peel off the skin. Mash the flesh with a fork and pass it through a sieve. Store in the fridge until use.