La crème de la crème: Panna Cotta and Florentines
After many months, I am finally bringing you a new post. Sometimes life gets in the way of having fun, but this February, the shortest month of the year, I challenged myself to make time to complete the Daring Baker’s Challenge.
The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestlé Florentine Cookies.
Panna Cotta, an Italian dessert, literally means “cooked cream.” It is generally flavored with vanilla and topped with a fresh fruit or a fruit coulis. For the challenge Mallory gave us a recipe for vanilla panna cotta as well as a recipe for a chocolate version for those interested. I chose to do the vanilla recipe, but because I make vanilla panna cotta everyday at work, I decided to infuse the cream and milk mixture with cardamom. Thus I present to you my cardamom panna cotta with acerola gelée and fresh mango (picture finally up):
Acerola gelée
100g acerola purée
50g orange juice
20g sugar
1 gelatin leaf (softened in cold water)
In a small pot, heat all ingredients, except gelatin. Once the mixture is hot, stir in gelatin. Pour into the dish for the panna cotta and chill until gelatin is set.
Cardamom Panna Cotta (adapted from the recipe for Vanilla Panna Cotta by Giada De Laurentiis)
1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk
1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk
1 Tbs (one 1/4 oz packet or 7g) unflavored powdered gelatin (or 3 1/2 gelatin leaves)
3 cups (720ml) whipping cream (at least 30% butterfat)
1/3 cup (80ml) honey
1 Tbs (15g) granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 Tbs green cardamom pods, crushed
First, you must soften the gelatin leaves in cold water. In a medium casserole, heat the milk, buttermilk, cream, honey, sugar and salt until hot but not boiling. When the mixture has been heated, take it off the heat and add the cardamom. Infuse for 6 minutes, then pass the mixture through a strainer to separate the cardamom pods. Normally, the mixture should still be warm enough to melt the gelatin leaves, so stir in the gelatin and then pour the panna cotta into the moulds, verrines, jars, or whatever receptacle you have chosen. Chill the panna cotta for a few hours until the gelatin has set up. The panna cotta should not be as hard as say jello, it should be set but jiggly.
