How do you like your panna cotta? Salted or with a lemony kick?

In a way, I believe panna cottas are the perfect desserts: they are exceptionally easy to make, can and should be prepared far in advance, and are great mediums for imparting any desired flavor from simple vanilla, to fancy spices or teas. Other than that, the basic panna cotta requires nothing more, but everyday ingredients in the form of cream, milk or like in my case – chocolate.

Panna cotta, as simple and uncomplicated as it may be, is all about the texture. There’s nothing exiting about a rubbery panna cotta where you’d have to put your muscles to work to be able to cut through it. This pudding in its true form should not only taste distinctively, but also be creamy and quickly melt in your mouth. To attain this heavenly texture, both the ingredients and process matter.

Leaf gelatin works best in these types of desserts, as it can provide the “melt in the mouth” in comparison to using agar, which will give more “crumbly” touch. The next step towards the ideal texture is the cooling process: while having made a panna cotta it’s always tempting to toss it straight to the fridge, leaving it to cool slowly on the counter for about an hour will enhance the texture. Finally, adding more gelatin (sounds simple, but happens so often) than the recipe requires will surely lead to poor results. Generally, recipes including chocolate or caramel will require less gelatin leafs than recipes based on cream and milk only.

This panna cotta duo is quite on the opposite sides of the taste scale. Salted caramel – vanilla panna cotta with chocolate is very rich and strong in flavor. The caramel base of the panna cotta gives immediately a heaver texture to, so all the vanilla seeds do not drown to the bottom of the glass, but stay evenly. Lemongrass and white chocolate panna cotta on the other hand is quite light and even refreshing, with citrus notes cutting through the creamy white chocolate, and a dash of raspberry coulis on top gives the extra berry kick.

On a final note, though these two treats are good enough standing on their one or being mixed together, a dollop of vanilla ice cream will make them both just a little more special.

Makes 4 Lemongrass – white chocolate panna cottas
Ingredients
Lemongrass – White Chocolate Panna Cotta
◦ 350 ml cream
◦ 150 ml milk
◦ 1 lemongrass stick
◦ 1 lemon zest
◦ 100g white chocolate, chopped
◦ 2 ½ gelatin leaves (golden)
Raspberry coulis
◦ 100g raspberries
◦ 2 teaspoons sugar syrup

Instructions
Bash the lemongrass stick with the back of the knife and roughly chop it. In a pot bring the cream, milk with lemongrass and zest slowly to simmer,.
Take off the heat and let it infuse for 15-30 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and heat again.
Soak the gelatin leaves for 5 minutes in cold water. When ready, squeeze out the extra water and stir into the hot cream mixture till dissolves.

Chop the white chocolate and quickly stir in, till you have a homogenous sauce.
Pour in glasses, cups, molds or whatever you are planning to serve in and leave to cool on the kitchen counter for 1-1,5 hours. Then place in the fridge and leave to set for 3-4 hours, overnight works best.

To make the raspberry coulis, mash the raspberries (or blend them), pass them through a sieve and stir in the sugar syrup.

Drizzle the raspberry coulis on top of the panna cotta and serve.

Makes 4 Salted Caramel – Vanilla panna cottas with chocolate
Ingredients
Salted Caramel – Vanilla Panna Cotta
◦ 100 grams white sugar
◦ 1 vanilla pods
◦ 2 gelatin leaves (golden)
◦ 500 ml cream
◦ pinch of fleur de sel (or any other sea salt)
Chocolate Sauce
◦ 15 g dark chocolate
◦ 3 tablespoons cream

Instructions
Split the vanilla pod, scrape the seeds out and add to sugar together with the remaining pod.
Pour the sugar into a heavy based saucepan and heat on medium heat until turns to dark amber caramel. Do not stir, but if lumps start forming swirl the pan around and turn down the heat a little.
Soak the gelatin leaves in ice-cold water for 5 minutes.
Stir in the cream into the caramel. Pour in very carefully as the caramel may spit and burn.
Add fleur de sel and stir in the gelatin leaves.
Pass the panna cotta mixture through a sieve and pour into the martini glasses or any other serving dish.
Leave to cool in room temperature for 1-1,5 hours, then transfer to the fridge to set for another 3-4 hours, overnight works best.
Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over simmering water and stir in the cream, leave to cool for couple of minutes then drizzle over panna cottas and, serve!

Photographer: I-M Photography
Recipe from Gourmantine’s Blog

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