two funny things happened to me last week. i won a giveaway, little green pinch bowls, (whoooo!) from hannah over at honey and jam… lovely little blog written by a super sweet girl. then, kristina from stoneyfield farm offered to send me some coupons for their oikos organic greek yogurt. um, free yogurt? hellz yeah.

sooo, i wanted to come up with a dessert that would feature the yogurt. usually i like to eat greek yogurt plain with some honey, but i thought i’d dress it up a bit. i went with a yogurt panna cotta sweetened with a little honey, but first i cooked down a few stalks of rhubarb with some vanilla sugar. i spooned that into the bottoms of the vessels i used (little tea cups), popped those in the freezer while i was mixing up the panna cotta (to prevent the two from mixing) and then i layered the panna cotta mixture over the top.

they turned out great. i really liked the flavor, nice tang from the yogurt, and the rhubarb added a nice fruity flavor too. my taste-testers, sean and geoff, really liked them a lot. geoff more so than sean, who has a (weird, weirdo) aversion to honey. i think it’s the whole floral flavor.

i can’t say that i love oikos organic greek yogurt over any of my other faves…i didn’t do a side-by-side comparison…it was thick and creamy like i like and also a bit more affordable for me. if you’ve never had greek yogurt, try it out, i’ve loved it for a while and was (and am always) happy to try something new.

yogurt panna cottas
the amount of servings will differ depending on the size of vessel you use. i used 3 ramekins and 3 small teacups (4 and 3 oz. respectively). i also didn’t follow a real panna cotta recipe, i kind of jumbled a few things together to get the texture that i wanted, so here is the recipe i came up with.

150 grams greek yogurt, plain
1 cup half and half
2 tablespoons honey (i used orange blossom, use what you want)
1/2 vanilla bean, gutted (hehe)
2 teaspoons powdered, plain gelatin
2 tablespoons water

1 1/2 cups rhubarb
1/3 cup sugar (this was to taste, adjust to your liking)

sprinkle gelatin over water in a small bowl to soften. about 5 minutes.
place yogurt into a large heatproof bowl.

heat half and half in a small saucepan with half of vanilla bean (pod and scrapings), until just before a boil. cover and turn off heat, allow to steep for 15 minutes.

meanwhile, cook chopped rhubarb with sugar until rhubarb breaks down and thickens a bit. spoon into vessels and place in freezer.

remove pod from half and half and stir in honey, followed by the softened gelatin until everything dissolves completely. pour this mixture into the bowl with the yogurt and blend well. pour into prepared ramekins and refrigerate for 4 hours or until firmed.

to invert onto a plate i just pushed the panna cotta’s along the top edges, turned them over and prodded them a bit more. slid right out and onto the plate :)

thanks hannah! cannot wait to use the heck out of these little guys.