Vegan Hojicha Panna Cotta with Agar Agar
Feb 13, 2022 • Updated Jun 20, 2023
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This beautiful Hojicha Vegan Panna Cotta is a delightful, light, and creamy dessert made with green tea leaves, oat milk, agar agar powder, and maple syrup.
What is Panna Cotta?
Panna cotta is a traditional Italian dessert. It’s a custard made with sweetened cream that’s thickened into a pudding-like texture using gelatin. My creamy, vegan version is just as delicious, but made with oat milk, maple syrup, and agar agar powder instead!
Classic panna cotta is flavored with vanilla, but you can flavor yours with dozens of different flavorings. In this case, I love the delicate tea flavor of hojicha.
What is Hojicha?
Hojicha is a type of Japanese green tea. The leaves are dried and roasted over charcoal, which is how they get their distinctly smoky, concentrated flavor.
The roasting process prevents oxidation, which helps preserve the tea leaves flavor. It also turns the leaves a light gold, which is distinct from the grassy green of other teas, like matcha.
What Makes This Recipe Great
Vegans really can have all the fun! Italian recipes are often made with eggs and cheese and other non-vegan ingredients, which used to mean it was harder to enjoy vegan versions of these classic favorites. Now, with so many options for swaps and substitutions, it’s so easy to make delicious Italian dishes completely vegan!
Enter, this vegan panna cotta with agar agar powder! It’s light and sweet with the most delicious green tea flavor. It’s prepped and ready in under 10 minutes and then chills and sets in the refrigerator. The resulting dessert is a creamy, pudding-like treat that is topped with fresh berries and mint, and just hits the spot every single time!
Italian food for every lifestyle! (Try these vegan recipes too! Chopped Italian Salad, Spicy Tomato Orzo, and Vegan Tiramisu!)
How to Make Vegan Panna Cotta with Green Tea
To infuse your vegan panna cotta with the most flavor, you’ll start by infusing the oat milk. Next, sweeten the milk with maple syrup and help it gel. For the pudding-like texture, you’ll use agar-agar.
It’s super simple and turns out so tasty. See details below for ingredients and step-by-step instructions!
Ingredient Notes
- Hojicha Tea Leaves*
- Unsweetened Oat Milk: You can also use cashew milk or canned full-fat coconut milk (or coconut cream) as a plant-based substitute for oat milk.
- Maple Syrup: Use more or less to taste.
- Vanilla Bean Paste: You can also sub 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
- Agar Agar Powder: Agar-agar is a kelp-based ingredient that has very little flavor but helps liquids thicken and gel. It’s vegan and gluten-free, so it’s a great replacement for animal-based gelatin in desserts like panna cotta.
garnish
- Fresh Berries
- Fresh Mint
- Toasted Buckwheat Groats
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Start by infusing your oat milk with tea leaves. Add milk to a small saucepan, and tea leaves to a tea bag or strainer. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and let cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for an additional 5 minutes, or to your liking. The longer the tea leaves sit, the stronger the flavour will be.
- Put the saucepan back on medium heat, and add maple syrup, vanilla bean paste, and agar powder. Bring to a low boil and whisk to combine. Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes.
- Prepare your ramekins or small bowls and pour your mixture into the bowls. Allow sitting at room temp for a few minutes before chilling in the fridge until set. Chill for a minimum of an hour, or ideally overnight!
- Garnish with fresh fruit as desired.
Expert Tips
- Setting: Be sure to leave yourself some time to let the panna cotta set up fully. It needs at least an hour, but you can prepare the ramekins the night before serving for the best texture.
- Green Tea Alternative: If you’re not able to find hojicha tea leaves, you can also make this using earl gray tea leaves, black tea, Thai tea, Matcha or other similar tea. Be sure to use dry tea leaves or a tea bag (not a concentrate or brewed tea.
- Agar Agar: Find agar-agar at specialty food stores, Asian markets, and online. *Make sure to use Agar Agar powder and not agar flakes. They work differently and do not substitute well.
Serving Tips
- This vegan panna cotta is an individual dessert. You can garnish each pretty little dish with fresh mixed berries and something crunchy. I like toasted buckwheat groats or Vanilla Fig Granola.
Recipe FAQs
It’s very simple! It replaces heavy cream for plant-based milk, agar agar powder for gelatin, and maple syrup as a natural sweetener instead of regular sugar. You can flavor it in so many ways (though the classic is vanilla panna cotta). I opted for a delicate, flavorful green tea for mine.
Yes! Agar agar powder is a vegan, gluten-free substitute for gelatin. It uses no animal products and creates the same gelatinous texture needed for many recipes.
It’s Italian for “cooked cream”.
More Easy Dessert Recipes
Strawberry Matcha Sugar Cookies
If you make this Vegan Panna Cotta recipe, be sure to let me know what you think with a comment below!
Hojicha Panna Cotta (vegan, gluten free)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp hojicha tea leaves*
- 1 1/2 cup unsweetened oat milk
- 1 tbsp maple syrup more to taste
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or sub 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 tsp agar powder
- garnish
- fresh berries
- fresh mint
- toasted buckwheat groats
Instructions
- Start by infusing your oat milk with tea leaves. Add milk to a small saucepan, and tea leaves in a tea bag or strainer. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and let cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for an additional 5 minutes, or to your liking. The longer the tea leaves sit, the stronger the flavour will be.
- Put the saucepan back on medium heat, add maple syrup, vanilla bean paste and agar powder. Bring to a low boil and whisk to combine. Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes.
- Prepare your ramekins or small bowls and pour your mixture into the bowls. Allow to sit at room temp for a few minutes before chilling in the fridge until set. Chill for a minimum of an hour, or ideally overnight!
- Garnish with fresh fruit as desired.
Notes
Expert Tips
- Setting: Be sure to leave yourself some time to let the panna cotta set up fully. It needs at least an hour, but you can prepare the ramekins the night before serving for the best texture.
- Green Tea Alternative: If you're not able to find hojicha tea leaves, you can also make this using earl gray tea leaves, black tea, Thai tea, or other similar tea. Be sure to use dry tea leaves or a tea bag (not a concentrate or brewed tea.
- Agar Agar: Find agar-agar at specialty food stores, Asian markets, and online. *Make sure to use Agar Agar powder and not agar flakes. They work differently and do not substitute well.
Serving Tips
- This vegan panna cotta is an individual dessert. You can garnish each pretty little dish with fresh mixed berries and something crunchy. I like toasted buckwheat groats or Vanilla Fig Granola.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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