Cooking
Lately I've been reading so many blog posts about panna cotta that I guess it seeped into my consciousness. When I learned that the next Is My Blog Burning was "Has my blog jelled?", like a lemming to a cliff, I felt compelled to make it. To see the comprehensive list of jelled postings, visit Elise's blog.
Panna Cotta means cooked cream in Italian. It's a chilled custard primarily made from cream, that is thickened with gelatin rather than eggs. As a result, panna cotta is super creamy, light textured and smooth and of course frighteningly high in calories.
Surfing around the web, I found a version made mainly from buttermilk and tweaked it a bit, adding vanilla and minimizing the sugar to increase the tang and decrease the guilt. By my calculations, using lowfat buttermilk and just a smidgen of cream, each serving is about 135 calories, and no more than 6 grams of fat. So without further ado I give you:
Guilt-free Panna Cotta
serves 6
Ingredients
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (.25 oz)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract (or 1/2 the inside scrapings of a vanilla bean)
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 1/3 cup buttermilk (low fat is fine, use Bulgarian style if you can find it)
Berry sauce
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup strawberries
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon sugar
extra berries for garnish
Instructions
In the medium saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over water; whisk to combine, then let stand. Add sugar, cream and salt and heat over low heat until just boiling, whisking to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and stir in buttermilk and vanilla. Pour into six 6 ounce (3/4 cup) ramekins or molds. Cover and refrigerate panna cottas until firm, about 2 hours. Let compote cool to room temperature. Fill a bowl with hot water (tap is fine). Run a butter knife around the edge of the ramekin to loosen. Dip ramekins or molds in hot water for a few seconds, then invert panna cottas onto dessert plates. Holding the plate and ramekin, shake to loosen, then lift off ramekins or molds. Spoon fruit or sauce around panna cotta, garnish with berries and serve.
Berry sauce
Puree the berries with the water and sugar. Push through a strainer to remove seeds and taste for sugar. You may want to add more sugar if your berries are not sweet enough or a squeeze of lemon if they are very sweet.
Enjoy!
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Cooking
Guilt-free Panna Cotta Recipe
Lately I've been reading so many blog posts about panna cotta that I guess it seeped into my consciousness. When I learned that the next Is My Blog Burning was "Has my blog jelled?", like a lemming to a cliff, I felt compelled to make it. To see the comprehensive list of jelled postings, visit Elise's blog.
Panna Cotta means cooked cream in Italian. It's a chilled custard primarily made from cream, that is thickened with gelatin rather than eggs. As a result, panna cotta is super creamy, light textured and smooth and of course frighteningly high in calories.
Surfing around the web, I found a version made mainly from buttermilk and tweaked it a bit, adding vanilla and minimizing the sugar to increase the tang and decrease the guilt. By my calculations, using lowfat buttermilk and just a smidgen of cream, each serving is about 135 calories, and no more than 6 grams of fat. So without further ado I give you:
Guilt-free Panna Cotta
serves 6
Ingredients
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (.25 oz)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract (or 1/2 the inside scrapings of a vanilla bean)
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 1/3 cup buttermilk (low fat is fine, use Bulgarian style if you can find it)
Berry sauce
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup strawberries
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon sugar
extra berries for garnish
Instructions
In the medium saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over water; whisk to combine, then let stand. Add sugar, cream and salt and heat over low heat until just boiling, whisking to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and stir in buttermilk and vanilla. Pour into six 6 ounce (3/4 cup) ramekins or molds. Cover and refrigerate panna cottas until firm, about 2 hours. Let compote cool to room temperature. Fill a bowl with hot water (tap is fine). Run a butter knife around the edge of the ramekin to loosen. Dip ramekins or molds in hot water for a few seconds, then invert panna cottas onto dessert plates. Holding the plate and ramekin, shake to loosen, then lift off ramekins or molds. Spoon fruit or sauce around panna cotta, garnish with berries and serve.
Berry sauce
Puree the berries with the water and sugar. Push through a strainer to remove seeds and taste for sugar. You may want to add more sugar if your berries are not sweet enough or a squeeze of lemon if they are very sweet.
Enjoy!
- Perfect Rhubarb Compote Recipe
There are rhubarb haters and rhubarb lovers. I'm a lover! I love the color of rhubarb and the gorgeous pink syrup you get when you cook it. Rhubarb, which we consider a fruit is actually a vegetable. It's high in vitamin C, potassium,...
- Still Hungry?
Call it pudding or panna cotta, this was another one of my favorite recipes, made with yogurt, white chocolate and only two tablespoons of cream. I must have been channeling some domestic goddess when I improvised a mold using an individual yogurt container...
- Blackberry Upside Down Cake Recipe
When a wine is described as "jammy" I always think of blackberries. Rich, ripe, fruity flavors so intense they almost taste more cooked than fresh. Blackberries, when fully ripe and sweet, not sour, taste like jam to me. Jammy also means "lucky" according...
- Last One; Promise!
Final re-post from the cooking club. I get a weekly newsletter from the Tribune (many cities), and in this week's I saw the following recipe. From the Chicago Tribune Recipe of the week Chicago Tribune All Heart, bittersweet style Preparation time:...
- Striving For Perfection, With Panna Cotta & Pomegranates
A couple of weeks or so ago, a very wise woman told me something important. She told me that sometimes, you can get so afraid of not doing things perfectly, that you end up doing nothing at all. I never thought of this before. I like to believe that...