PANNA COTTA

It happens so that there has been in fact no recipe for panna cotta on my blog so far. The truth is that I have not made this dessert for a long time now. Recently I wanted to prepare something tasty, but it was already 11 pm and I had no ingredients for fancy desserts at hand. However, I found some 36% cream, vanilla extract, various alcohols and gelatine – in other words, all you need to make a panna cotta! As it was running late and I was too exhausted to try out one of those complicated recipes, I did in the simplest possible way. Julcio was not asleep, which means that there is no way I can experiment freely. Panna cotta is a kind of a dessert that you cannot botch. It is simple and effective, but a lot depends on how it is served – it leaves a lot of space for unrestrained invention. I decided not to over do it and went for a straightforward, tasty, alcohol-infused panna cotta. I served it with a cherry preserve, which was made by my mother – the best preserve in the whole world, of course.

 

*recipe*

400 ml of cream (30 or 36 %)

3 spoons of sugar

2 spoons of gelatin

1 vanilla pod or ca. 3 spoons of vanilla extract

alcohol (optional)

***

This version of panna cotta is decidedly alcoholic, because instead of the vanilla pod I added some vanilla extract which is based on vodka and also mixed in some Malibu to achieve the right taste. This may not be a favourite version of mine but it turned out to be a successful experiment. Let us do it then!

Cook the cream, add sugar and vanilla. Make sure to cut the vanilla pod and remove the seeds earlier on. You can put straight in the cream and heat together. Alternatively, you could use vanilla extract – I added 3 spoons. Dissolve the gelatin in a small amount of water and add to the the boiled cream, then stir until smooth. Add alcohol (if you wish, of course) – I put some teo spoons of Malibu. If you do not choose to add alcohol, take a bit less gelatin. My version is definitely heavily gelatined.

Here you have an alcohol bomb – panna cotta malibu, served with coffee liquor and sprinkled with dark chocolate coffee grains. The tastes do not mix, because Malibu is barely discernible, but it may indeed be too much of a good thing…

Bon appétit!