Panna Cotta

Ever since we ate at Bernini, I’ve wanted to try making panna cotta at home. I finally got all the ingredients and gave it a shot. Most are things that you will have at home, so you won’t have to purchase many ingredients.

The recipe I used was off allrecipes.com. There were so many websites and recipes to choose from, but I eventually decided to use this one. Here it is:

• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 1 (.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1.     Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder. Set aside.

2.     In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into six individual ramekin dishes.

3.     Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving

All of the other recipes that I had read, had the gelatin going into a hot liquid, this one did not, at least right at first. Oh well, here we go. I mixed up the gelatin and milk in a small bowl and set it to the side.

After this step, I mixed up the heavy cream and sugar until it was just bubbling. I was a little scared it would bubble over, so I only put it on medium heat, instead of medium high as the recipe says. Once it started to bubble, I mixed in the milk/gelatin mixture (which at this point was fairly thick because the gelatin had soaked up a lot of the milk). After stirring it in, I continued stirring for the next minute, though the mixture did rise up quite a bit still.

After this, remove from the stove (I put mine on a pot holder on the counter) and stir in vanilla. Personally, I love the flavor and smell of vanilla, so I used a little more than called for in the recipe. When the vanilla is added, it is a rush of smell into the air. The heat just brings out how aromatic the vanilla really is and it permeates the whole kitchen! Amazing! I do not have small serving bowls, so I used a muffin tin (as well as one small bowl since it wouldn’t fit into 6 muffin tins). I put mine directly in the fridge instead of cooling on the counter until room temperature.

Three to four hours later, I tried taking the first one out of the muffin tin. It took a minute, but it eventually came out. I used a knife to go around the outside of it first, then tried popping it out. I had to go around it several times though.

The taste was delicious. Very vanilla and a creamy texture. I was a little disappointed though. The panna cotta we had at Bernini was more of a pudding texture, whereas this was more the texture of flan. I think the recipe used too much gelatin, and maybe I cooked it too long on the stove. Not sure, but I will be trying a different recipe next time to try and get a “softer set” panna cotta. Other than that, I really liked the texture.

You can pair it with whatever fruit or topping you want. I used blueberries macerated with a little sugar, though strawberries, cherries, or another fruit would work just as well. Or, for something a little sweeter, chocolate or caramel (though the dessert is sweet all by itself).

Link to the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/panna-cotta/