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    Home » Recipes » Tarts

    Published on: May 6, 2015 by Janice Lawandi; Updated on: September 30, 2022 28 Comments

    Earl Grey panna cotta tarts

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    Earl Grey panna cotta tart topped with dried rose petals and cut into with a fork, served on a wooden cutting board placed on a white lace doily

    These Earl Grey panna cotta tarts are made from a sweet almond cookie crust and filled with Earl Grey tea infused panna cotta filling that sets in the fridge, so you can make this tea-flavored dessert a day ahead to serve later.

     
    Earl Grey panna cotta tart topped with dried rose petals and cut into with a fork, served on a wooden cutting board placed on a white lace doily
    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    How do you make panna cotta?

    Panna cotta is such an easy dessert. Truly! For any panna cotta recipe, you will use a combination of milk and cream, or just milk for a lighter option. The milk is sweetened with your favourite sugar, whether that's plain old granulated sugar, maple syrup, brown sugar, etc., warmed, and set with gelatin.

    Panna cotta is a blank canvas, mostly dairy, so panna cotta is perfect for playing with flavour: you can infuse the milk with herbs, spices, or even tea, like I did below. The flavoured panna cotta base can be poured into jars to set and served directly in these or unmolded onto a plate.

    You can also pour the panna cotta mixture into baked tart shells to make panna cotta tarts, like in this recipe for Earl Grey panna cotta tarts.

    Fonçage - lining tart pans with dough

    Steps to make flavoured panna cotta desserts

    You can infuse milk with so many different flavours to make flavoured panna cotta. Here's how:

    1. Infuse the milk with flavour by heating the milk with any of the following
      1. vanilla bean, split in half, scrape the seeds, and add pod and seeds to the pot
      2. tea leaves, like Earl Grey tea, black tea, also matcha tea
      3. fresh herbs, like mint or basil
      4. citrus, like orange zest or lemon zest, which will add flavour without the risk of the milk curdling from the acid of the fruit juice
      5. spices, like cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, star anise, etc.
      6. coffee, like Turkish coffee, instant espresso powder
    2. Sweeten the milk: you can use a very flavourful sugar or a less flavourful sugar. If you are using granulated sugar, brown sugar, or coconut sugar, make sure the sugar is fully dissolved before proceeding. Panna cotta can be sweetened with:
      1. granulated sugar (no flavour)
      2. maple syrup
      3. honey
      4. brown sugar, the darker the sugar, the more caramel notes your panna cotta will have
      5. coconut sugar, which has a very pronounced flavour (make sure you like it before you go with this one)
    3. Melt the gelatin in the sweetened infused hot milk mixture
    4. Pour into molds or tart shell (see below)
    5. Chill in the fridge for several hours to set the panna cotta
    6. Remove tarts from tart pan before serving
    Little Earl Grey panna cotta tarts topped with dried rose petals and dried cornflower petals, served on a wooden cutting board placed on a white lace doily

    What to serve with panna cotta

    I love panna cotta desserts and you should too! Take this vanilla bean panna cotta recipe: it's made in small Mason jars, glasses, or any small cups so that when it comes time to serving, all you need is a spoon and some fun toppings.

    In general, I like to serve panna cotta topped with berries and fresh fruit, granola clusters, homemade milk crumbs, and simple cookies, like these slice-and-bake crystallized ginger cookies. You can also drizzle panna cotta with chocolate sauce, homemade jams, like plum jam in the late summer, rhubarb jam (no pectin) in the spring, spiced apple jam in the fall, or even three fruit marmalade or salted caramel sauce in the dead of winter when you are craving comfort.

    Really, anything goes! And panna cotta makes a great tart filling too like in the recipe below.

    Little Earl Grey panna cotta tarts decorated with dried rose petals and dried cornflowers, served with honeycomb

    Pâte sucrée

    These panna cotta tarts are made with blind-baked pâte sucrée. Pâte sucrée is one of my favourite tart doughs because it makes a great, not-too-sweet crust for these tarts, but it also makes yummy cookies. Pâte sucrée has quite a bit of fat and sugar, yielding a tender crust with a lot of flavour from ground almonds.

    This also means it has less structure than traditional pie dough. Remember to use tart pans with a removable bottom (like these on Amazon) so you don't stress about unmolding the tarts from the tart pan: check out my tips for how to remove tarts from tart pans. If you prefer to have panna cotta without the tart shell, feel free to make the panna cotta and divide it into glasses (greased if you'd like to unmold them).

    Pro tip: brush the inside of the baked tart shells with melted white chocolate

    When I studied pastry at Le Cordon Bleu, I learned that it's important to protect tart shells from the filling by creating a barrier between the filling and the crust. This is to avoid the crust absorbing liquid from the filling, which would make the crust soft and transform the crisp shell into a soft, mushy mess.

    To protect the tart shell from humidity, pastry professionals brush the inside of the tarts with a thin, even layer of melted white chocolate. The chocolate will set, creating an invisible barrier between the filling and the shell. The French verb for this step is "chablonner" which means to brush the surface of a cake or a tart with melted chocolate.

    Little Earl Grey panna cotta tarts decorated with dried rose petals and dried cornflower, cut into with a spoon

    Want to bake more desserts with tea? Try these recipes!

    Infusing recipes with tea is a great way to add unexpected flavour to desserts. You can add tea to layer cakes and frostings to make Earl Grey cake. You can add matcha to tart shells to make matcha tarts with passion fruit curd. You can infuse the cream with tea leaves to make ganache for lavender Earl Grey truffles or for a big Earl grey chocolate tart.

    Earl Grey Panna Cotta Tarts Recipe

    For these tarts, I originally tested a flavoured-panna cotta recipe with less gelatin (¾ tsp), but unfortunately, the resulting panna cotta filling was riding the line between set and unset, as you can see in the following picture. I liked it that way, but I don't think that it was "technically correct" so I retested the panna cotta filling with a little more gelatin (1 ¼ tsp) and the set was perfect.

    The filling is still luxuriously creamy but properly set so it doesn't ooze when you cut into it. I think I could even have gotten away with just a teaspoon of gelatin. In any case, make sure to measure the ingredients for this recipe carefully, otherwise, there's a risk your panna cotta won't set!

    📖 Recipe

    Earl grey panna cotta tarts

    Earl Grey Panna Cotta Tarts

    AuthorAuthor : Janice Lawandi
    These little Earl Grey panna cotta tarts are made with a sweet almond crust and decorated with dried rose petals and dried cornflowers, served with honeycomb. The Earl Grey panna cotta is infused with loose-leaf Earl Grey tea for a gorgeous simple dessert
    4.72 from 7 votes
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    Prep Time 30 minutes mins
    Cook Time 35 minutes mins
    Chill time 5 hours hrs
    Total Time 6 hours hrs 5 minutes mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine French
    Servings 6
    Calories 544 kcal

    Equipment

    • Braun mixer
    • Rolling pin
    • Mini tart pans
    • Pastry brush
    Need measurements in CUPSUse the button options below to switch from Metric to US measurements! It's that easy!

    Ingredients
     
     

    Sweet almond crust (pâte sablée)

    • 115 grams Stirling Creamery Churn 84 salted butter room temperature
    • 94 grams icing sugar 
    • 50 grams ground almonds
    • 1 large egg(s)
    • 208 grams bleached all-purpose flour
    • 35 grams white chocolate melted

    Earl Grey panna cotta

    • 250 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
    • 1 tablespoon loose leaf Earl Grey tea
    • 10 mL finely grated lemon zest
    • 125 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
    • 28 grams granulated sugar
    • 1 ¼ teaspoon Knox unflavoured gelatin powder

    Garnishes for decorating finished tarts (optional)

    • edible dried flowers
    • honeycomb

    Instructions
     

    Make the dough

    • Cream the Stirling butter with the icing sugar and the ground almond.
    • Add the egg and mix until smooth.
    • Add the flour and mix until the flour is blended in but don't over mix.
    • Pat the dough into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

    Blind bake the tart shells

    • Divide the disk of dough into 8 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
    • Roll out each on a floured surface into a circle of about 5 to 6 inches and line removable bottom tart pans (like these on Amazon), trimming the edges as needed. I only needed 6 tart shells for the panna cotta tarts, so I made cookies with the rest of the dough, which you can also use to garnish the tarts.
    • Chill unbaked shells 1 hour.
    • Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Dock pastry with a fork, top each with a square of parchment and fill with beans.
    • Bake 15 minutes with the beans, then at least 10 minutes without or until the edges are golden brown.
    • Let cool completely, then unmold from tart pans.
    • Just before filling the tart shells, brush the inside of the pre-baked tart shells with the melted white chocolate to coat completely and place on a rimmed sheet in the fridge to set.

    Make Earl Grey panna cotta

    • Warm milk in a small saucepan with the looseleaf tea and lemon zest (heat but don't boil). When the milk is hot, remove from the stove and let infuse 1 hour.
    • Strain the tea-infused milk then place in a medium saucepan with the cream, sugar, and sprinkle the Knox gelatin overtop. Let stand 10 minutes, then heat the mixture while whisking on medium-low until the sugar and the gelatin have dissolved (I heated the mixture to 125ºF, knowing that gelatin melts at 104ºF).
    • Strain the mixture into a pouring jug or a big spouted measuring cup. Let cool 30 minutes at room temperature, whisking every so often, then in the fridge (still whisking intermittently) until the panna cotta is below 100ºF.
    • Pour the cooled panna cotta into the shells and refrigerate overnight to set.

    Notes

    Note that I used ¾ of the pâte sablée that I made. I made cookies with the rest of the dough.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 544kcalCarbohydrates: 55gProtein: 9gFat: 33gSaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 106mgSodium: 193mgPotassium: 135mgFiber: 2gSugar: 26gVitamin A: 934IUCalcium: 104mgIron: 2mg
    Give backIf you enjoy the free content on this website, buy me a pound of butter to say thanks!

    I do my best to bake with the finest ingredients. Stirling Creamery, a Canadian company, has provided the butter for this post.

    Little Earl Grey panna cotta tarts

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    Comments

    1. Vincas says

      January 31, 2022 at 12:34 am

      Thanks for your great recipe!

      Reply
    2. kavitraa says

      May 09, 2020 at 4:32 am

      Can I make the dough ahead?

      Reply
      • Janice says

        May 09, 2020 at 11:15 am

        Absolutely! The only thing is that the longer it chills before rolling it out, the harder it will be to roll because the butter will solidify. You will have to let it warm a little before being able to roll it out.

        Reply
    3. kavitraa says

      May 08, 2020 at 1:48 am

      What a prefect recipe for Mothers Day! Looking forward to making these. Can I ask ,what beans do we need to bake the crust with? I don't see it in the recipe

      Reply
      • Janice says

        May 08, 2020 at 3:47 pm

        Thank you for stopping by! You can use any dried beans or lentils. You can even use granulated sugar or rice. It's just to provide weight to weigh down the tart dough as it bakes so that it doesn't puff up and stays flat.You remove the beans after the tart bakes. I have a jar with a bunch of old dried chickpeas and kidney beans that I re-use for this purpose.

        Reply
    4. Ashley says

      December 06, 2018 at 1:28 pm

      I can’t wait to try this as my first panna cotta! A little confused about the parchment and beans part...... is it dried beans? Is this just a trick to make the shell keep its shape?

      Reply
    5. John says

      June 14, 2018 at 2:09 am

      Hello, what is the best way to store these tarts once the tarts are filled with panna cotta? I did these overnight and the tart shells began to go soft.
      Thanks

      Reply
      • Janice says

        June 22, 2018 at 4:15 pm

        To prevent the tart shell from softening, the best way would be to brush the inside of each tart shell with a thin, even layer of melted chocolate. Let that set and form a shell of sorts, and then pour the panna cotta filling over that. The thin layer of chocolate creates a barrier between the panna cotta filling and the crust, preventing the crust from drawing moisture from the filling. You can do this with white chocolate, milk chocolate or dark chocolate. Up to you! I hope that helps for next time!

        Reply
    6. Tayla says

      July 23, 2016 at 12:03 am

      Would it be possible to substitute the gelatine and if so in what quantities? They look so beautiful ?

      Reply
      • Janice says

        July 26, 2016 at 8:22 am

        Hi Tayla,
        I've never tried this recipe with a substitute, but if I did, I'd use agar agar and I'd test it with 1 tsp (or it might even work with 3/4 tsp). But I haven't tested it, honestly, so I can't say for sure.

        Reply
        • Vicky says

          June 29, 2021 at 6:09 am

          I used agar agar instead with 1 tbsp and they are all runny 🙁 but so delicious, though

          Reply
    7. Lydia says

      July 06, 2016 at 7:06 pm

      What 'Edible Flowers' Do You Use?

      Reply
      • Janice says

        July 07, 2016 at 10:42 am

        Hi Lydia, I used dried rose petals from a tea shop!

        Reply
    8. Auria says

      May 12, 2016 at 12:49 pm

      These look delicious! I've never made a tart. Maybe a bit ambitious, but can you recommend an alternative to the almonds? I'm allergic.

      Reply
      • Janice says

        May 25, 2016 at 11:01 pm

        Hi Auria, You can try any nut you like, or if nuts really aren't an option, I'd try sunflower seeds even. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

        Reply
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    Earl Grey panna cotta tart topped with dried rose petals and cut into with a fork, served on a wooden cutting board placed on a white lace doily
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    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Hi, I'm Janice!

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