A little bit about panna cotta

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert made with cream and gelatine. It's no-bake and is set in the fridge for 4 hours.
'Panna cotta' means cooked cream. It's simple really, you cook the cream, sugar, vanilla and gelatin and serve with a simple sauce; berry, caramel or as I did; espresso.
I was surprised at how easy it is. The hardest thing was taking it out of its moulds.

This is another Donna Hay recipe; you know what that means! It's foolproof.

It requires one vanilla bean. When I was in Farro's looking for vanilla beans I was surprised at how expensive they are. $15 for a pack of 3. That's $5 for a single bean.
Luckily I have generous friends... Miss Shell kindly gave me one of hers in exchange for the final product.

Split the vanilla bean lengthwise through the middle with a sharp knife.

Then run the knife through the middle to scrape the seeds out.

Get every single bit of seed out; that stuff is expensive.

I used powdered gelatine. There are other recipes that use sheet gelatine.
Sprinkle the gelatine over a bowl of water. After 5 minutes, the water should be absorbed and you're left with a semi-hard lump that will hold your panna cotta in shape.

In a saucepan goes the cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds.

Bring to the boil and stir. Add the gelatine and stir until it is dissolved.

I used tea cups as moulds. This nautical teacup I got from Lauren is the perfect size because the panna cotta is quite rich so you only want a few spoonfuls. The bigger plain teacup was better for sharing in my opinion.

This recipe filled five tea cups. I think 6 would have been better- split up some of the bigger portions.

In the fridge it goes for 4 hours or overnight.

To take them out of the moulds, fill a bowl with WARM (not hot) water and let the panna cotta sit for 10 seconds. Put a plate on top, invert and give a little shake. When you hear the 'plop', that's when you know the panna cotta has come out. Use a teaspoon or small rubber spatula to loosen the edges if you have to.

Remember what I said about using WARM water! Don't leave it in there for too long or the cream will melt!
Fail.

For the espresso sauce, make a cup of strong black coffee. Pour in a saucepan with white sugar and bring to the boil.

This is the recipe from Donna Hay's 'A Cook's Guide' cookbook.

Panna cotta

2 Tbsp water

2 tsp gelatine powder

500ml cream

1/3 cup icing sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

1. Place the water in a bowl and sprinkle the gelatine evenly on top. Leave for 5 minutes or until hardened.

2. Pour the cream, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Add the gelatine and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until gelatine is dissolved.

3. Pour into moulds and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

4. Let the panna cotta moulds sit in a bowl of warm water for a few seconds before inverting onto a plate.

Espresso sauce

2 Tbsp instant coffee powder

200ml hot water

1/3 cup white sugar

1. Dissolve the coffee in hot water

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the coffee and sugar. Bring to the boil for 5-8 minutes until thickened and syrupy.

3. Refrigerate until cold.

I love the black dots from the vanilla. You can use paste instead of seeds, but the dots make it look more fancy.

There are a lot of panna cotta variations. In the cookbook, Donna Hay also has passionfruit jelly panna cotta, chocolate, brown sugar with espresso and cinnamon and rhubarb. I think next time I will use some coffee liquor. 

The espresso sauce turned out quite nice. It complimented the creamy panna cotta and it wasn't too sweet. Still- it's a rich dessert. 

But amazingly simple and easy to make. Will definitely impress your next dinner guests.

And to conclude,

Have I told you about a little gem called Ponsonby Central?

I can't believe I've only recently discovered it!

It has a market place at the back that sells fruits, veges...

wine...

Cheese...

And my favorite place (the only reason I go there) Crepes-a-gogo!

This is the cream cheese, sundried tomato and mushroom.
But my favorite is the 'Croque monsieur'- ham, cheese and bechamel sauce.
Get 10% off with your student ID!

This is the other place I want to try. They sell ice cream sandwiches!! Choose your cookies and scoop of ice cream!
Have you been here? What flavors do you recommend?

Signed,

Elisa