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THE KITCHN: Panna cotta: Pure heaven ... and so easy to make

By Faith Durand on

TheKitchn.com

Panna cotta may just be the perfect dessert: It's easy, quick, practically foolproof and accommodating to many dietary adjustments, being naturally gluten-free and adaptable to dairy-free and vegan diets.

It also happens to be luscious and perfectly creamy, in a way that belies its utter simplicity. Below, I'll walk you through making panna cotta, step by step. People think it's some laborious restaurant dessert involving cheesecloth and a chinois, but it's actually easier than making Jello out of a box.

But there I go again about how easy this is. Let's get back to how it tastes, shall we?

It's a very basic pudding that is made of dairy thickened with gelatin. It originated in Italy and its name literally means "cooked cream," since the earliest versions were made of thick cream, sometimes thickened with fish bones.

You can eat it straight out of a cup, but it's often unmolded onto a plate and drizzled with sweet sauce and garnished with fruit. A bite of panna cotta is remarkably creamy, melting in the mouth without a trace of grittiness or lumps.

 

This tutorial will teach you how to make the most basic vanilla panna cotta, flavored with vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. You only need a few ingredients (milk, cream, gelatin, flavorings). I often don't even use milk and cream but half and half (see my note on that below). The goal with panna cotta is to calibrate the amount of gelatin to the dairy and its fat so that you achieve a firm set that is still delicate and wobbly.

As with any other elemental recipe, you could argue for days over the pieces. You might like your panna cotta a touch sweeter, or with less fat in it.

This recipe is my own idea of a very good basic panna cotta. It's not too fatty, and not too sweet, but still rich. I included a touch of extra gelatin to make it extra-foolproof, and so that you can unmold it onto a plate. But it shouldn't be rubbery -- it's wobbly and velvety smooth.

For this recipe you should use plain, unflavored gelatin, which is usually found in the grocery store aisle with the baking supplies and Jello. I use granulated gelatin, which is the most common form of gelatin in the U.S. (as opposed to gelatin sheets).

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