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This beautiful Hojicha Panna Cotta is a delightful, light, and creamy vegan and gluten free dessert made with green tea leaves, oat milk, and maple syrup.
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 leave’s flavor. It also turns the leaves a light gold, which is distinct from the grassy green of other teas, like matcha.
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. 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.
How to Make Green Tea Panna Cotta
To infuse your vegan panna cotta with the most flavor, you’ll start by infusing the oat milk. First, add heat by bringing the milk with the tea leaves to a simmer. Then let it sit for at least five minutes. You can infuse the milk as long as you like, the longer the better!
Next, sweeten the milk with maple syrup and help it gel. For the pudding-like texture, you’ll use agar-agar.
Tip: 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.
What is Agar-Agar?
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.
Find agar-agar at specialty food stores, Asian markets, and online.
Serving Suggestions
This hojicha panna cotta is an individual dessert. You can garnish each pretty little dish with fresh berries and something crunchy. I like toasted buckwheat groats or Vanilla Fig Granola.
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!
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)
Hi, this looks like a great recipe to try! A couple (dumb) questions here: 1) which brand of oat milk do you recommend? 2) what is agar powder and how else can I use it?
Thank you very much for your time!
PS. I’m so glad to have found your blog. My daughter is celiac, and we’ve been trying to eat more plant based food (because our love for animals). This is quite an incredible challenge for me as I’m a TERRIBLE cook!!
Hi Sandra!! I like Califia brand of oat milk but any will do! Agar powder is essentially a plant based version of gelatin, so you can make "jello", gummies, etc. as you would gelatin.
Hi there, I’m Remy! Welcome to Veggiekins Blog, home to nourishing vegan + gluten-free recipes and tips to live your best balanced and holistic life. I’m a human on a mission to empower you to be well and be kind to your mind, body and soul with the healing power of plants.
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