Cooking Fear: Vanilla Pannacotta

Do you have cooking fears? Those recipes that seem impossible or that ingredient that just seems to tricky. I had this with panna cotta.  It seems that my fear was unwarranted, this was possibly one of the easiest things I have ever made. I was inspired to go out of my comfort zone as this was the dessert for my boyfriend and I going away. That's right we will be departing Adelaide, Australia, a little town known as the city of churches, Farmers Union Ice coffee, Frucchocs and the Malls Balls to the bustling streets of Hanoi, Vietnam where we will be over landing through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali for 6 weeks! This will mean that posts will for a short time will not be any of my recipes but all the interesting and yummy food that we will be eating. 

Anyway, back to the food; the panna cotta was everything I wanted it to be creamy, silky and had a beautiful vanilla taste, it tasted incredibly refreshing and not heavy, despite being 99% cream. I paired it with cherries that I got at my local farmers market that morning. 

I trusted the recipe of the fantastic David Lebovitz

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of Heavy cream

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla paste/essence

4 1/2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin

6 tables spoons of cold water

Grab a saucepan and combine the sugar and cream. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. I kept stirring throughout to not let the cream burn on the bottom of the saucepan. To check if the sugar was dissolved I stopped stirring for 30 seconds (to let the sugar settle) once I started stirring again I listened for any crunchy noises. If there wasn't then all your sugar is probably dissolved!

Stir in vanilla paste, sit mixture aside. 

In  a medium bowl pour cold water in and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. I also kept stirring my cream mixture during this time to avoid a skin from developing. 

There are two different ways of presenting the panna cotta. If you want to take the easy route which I totally did,  pour the cream mixture in pretty glasses and let it set (This can be left in the fridge for up to two days, or will set in about 2 hours). 

Now, if you want to be fancy: Spray the moulds with oil (non-tasting), then pour mixture in. When trying to get the panna cotta's out, run a knife around the edge of your mould, and slowly place the panna cotta on your plate. 

I served them with de-pitted cherries which I soaked in lemon juice and honey for an hour.