Panna Cotta dessert

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert which literally means 'cooked cream.' I learnt to make this dessert at Keikos-Cakes and tried it out last week and trust me it is amazingly easy to prepare! It's all just a matter of simmering heavy cream, sugar and vanilla and finally dissolving soaked gelatin and refrigerating it overnight to work its magic.
Once it was time to taste it, you have no choice but to trust me again on this - it was beautifully creamy with an intense silky smooth texture! My sisters and i weren't uttering a word while having this irresistible dessert till we scraped the last bits off the plate, licked our spoons and let our taste buds do away with the rich taste! Yes, this dessert makes you that desperate :D

You get many different variations of Panna Cotta such as vanilla, coffee, cinnamon, lime, chocolate, etc. served with berries, caramel, chocolate sauce or fruit coulis. Here you'll be learning to make vanilla flavoured panna cotta served with caramel and fruit coulis as in the picture above.

Ingredients for the panna cotta

• 500g heavy cream
• 50g sugar
• 7g unflavored gelatin powder softened in 35g cold water
• 2tsp vanilla essence

Method

• Sprinkle gelatin in cold water and stir to aid the softening. Set aside.

• Heat heavy cream with vanilla and bring it to a simmer. 

• Remove from heat and add sugar. Stir until dissolved completely.

• Cover with a plate for about 7 mins for the vanilla flavor to permeate into the cream.

• Then add the softened gelatin and stir till completely dissolved.

• Strain the mixture into a separate bowl. This step is important in order to make your panna cotta smooth. Make sure the mixture doesn't cool before straining.

• Pour the mixture into dessert glasses or any molds. Refrigerate it overnight to set.

Ingredients for caramel decoration

• 70g sugar
• 2tbsp sliced almonds

Method

• Spread the sliced almonds on a baking tray covered with baking paper and roast for about 10 mins or until browned at 160 degrees Celsius.

• In a saucepan, heat sugar on low fire until it turns brown. Make sure it doesn't burn - keep stirring once the sugar crystals start melting.

• Spread the caramel (be careful it's extremely hot!) on a baking sheet with a spoon and quickly sprinkle the roasted almonds before it dries. 

• Let it cool. Remove from baking sheet by sliding a spatula under each caramel stick.

Ingredients for the fruit coulis

• 10 strawberries
• 1 kiwi
• 1 orange
• 1 apple

Dice all of the above fruits and mix with 1tbsp sugar.

Assembling the dessert

•  The chilled panna cotta glasses/molds are ready to be turned out! If you've used molds, take them out of the fridge and dip the bottom in hot water for about 10 seconds. Then run a spatula around the edge of each mold, invert it onto your serving plate and shake the panna cotta free of its mold.

• Surround it with the fruit salad and top it with the caramel decoration.

• If using dessert glasses, follow the pictures below.

Panna cotta is a perfect make-ahead dish and fits well for individual servings. You could make all of the elements in advance and refrigerate. When it's time to serve, just unmold and decorate!