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Panna Cotta

Name: Panna Cotta
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 2 cups Heavy cream; 1 cup Milk; 0.5 cup Sugar; 1 Vanilla bean; 3 Gelatin sheets; Berries; Caramel or fruit sauce; Mint

Cream and vanilla warmed and lightly set with gelatin — Italy's no-bake dessert. Melt-in-the-mouth soft, it becomes an elegant finish topped with berries or caramel sauce, and needs nothing more than mixing and chilling.

Ingredients

4servings

Heavy cream · about 500ml2 cups
Milk · optional, lighter1 cup
Sugar0.5 cup
Vanilla bean · or 1 tsp vanilla extract1
Gelatin sheets · or 2 tsp powdered gelatin3
To serve (optional)
Berries · strawberry, blueberry
Caramel or fruit sauce
Mint · to garnish

Steps

Soften the gelatin sheets in cold water for 5 minutes (bloom powdered gelatin in 2 tbsp water).
⏲ 5 min
Warm the cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla (scraped seeds and pod) over low heat until steaming — do not boil.
⏲ 5 min
Off the heat, stir in the squeezed gelatin until fully dissolved, then remove the vanilla pod.
⏲ 1 min
Strain the mixture for smoothness and pour into cups or molds.
⏲ 2 min
Cool slightly, then chill at least 4 hours (overnight is best) until set.
⏲ 240 min
Serve as is, or dip the mold briefly in warm water and turn out onto a plate. Top with berries or caramel sauce.

Variations

Coffee panna cotta: add espresso while warming the cream.
Chocolate panna cotta: melt in dark chocolate.
Yogurt panna cotta: replace some of the cream with yoghurt for tang.
Berry sauce: simmer frozen berries with sugar and spoon it over.

More detail and the reasons why (3)

Gelatine is described by three temperatures. It dissolves around 50°C, sets only below about 15°C, and melts again at body temperature. What dissolves the instant it reaches your mouth is not a flavour, it is that third number.
Yokan sits exactly opposite it. Agar has to be boiled to dissolve, sets at about 40°C, and does not melt again until past 85°C — which is why yokan is chewed and panna cotta is not. Two set desserts, and all three numbers run the other way.
Milk can be set in several different ways. Break it with acid and you get the curd of rasgulla; stand soy milk up with a calcium salt instead and you get douhua; set it with rennet and you get mozzarella; set it with egg and heat and you get crème brûlée and crème caramel. Panna cotta does none of those. The cream is never changed at all — gelatine is simply added to it.

Tips

Do not boil the cream — heat it only until it steams.
The gelatine quantity controls the texture: too much is rubbery, too little will not set.
To unmould, dip the mould in warm water for a few seconds and invert.
Strain it once so there are no lumps of gelatine.

More detail and the reasons why (3)

The reason for not boiling is that prolonged boiling weakens gelatine. Gelatine is collagen that has already been cut up, and holding it at the boil cuts it further, so it sets less firmly. Warm enough to dissolve is all it needs.
Dry gelatine dropped straight into hot liquid gels on its own surface and stays dry inside. That is what blooming it in cold water prevents, and the tip about straining is the cleanup for when it happens anyway.
Cream rather than milk, because fat loosens the gelatine network, so the same weight of gelatine gives a softer set — and the vanilla dissolves in it. Swap in milk and the same gelatine sets noticeably firmer.