Inspired by a recipe found on Epicurious, I gave our very own basic recipe for panna cotta a little colorful twist. Some weeks ago I bought frozen blueberries, didn’t have immediate use for them and was looking for a suitable recipe since. Quite a few possibilities crossed my mind, blueberry-muffins for instance could have been an option or a blueberry-banana-smoothie, but I was looking for something else; it had to be a different challenge…a new panna cotta. A smoother, fruitier version, with a different hue.
Said and done. The process is in principle the same as for the original panna cotta, except for the fruit puree.
Heat the cream, add the sugar and a lengthwise sliced vanilla bean (and the scraped out vanilla seeds). Let it lightly cook for about 15 minutes and stir every now and then. Remove the vanilla pod from the pot and the pot from the heat.
Meanwhile soak the sheets of gelatin in some water (for about 10 min). Squeeze well. Add them to the cream mixture and stir thoroughly until the gelatin has completely dissolved.
Put the blueberries together with the buttermilk in a blender, mix until you get a smooth puree, then pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Finally add the puree to the cream, stir well and divide up the cream-fruit-mix into four molds. Chill for at least 8 hours, better over night.
To unmold the panna cotta, briefly dip the form in hot water and carefully flip it over on a plate. Decorate either with melted white chocolate or some chocolate flakes (scrapped from a bar of chocolate) – we found the chocolate to be the perfect companion.
Annotation: This is a very nice variation of panna cotta, the color is so rich and extravagant. It’s taste is perfect for a summer dessert, mild and creamy on the one hand, fruity with a little tartish aftertaste on the other hand. The unmolding part wasn’t as easy as with the regular recipe, probably due to the modified composition (with fruit puree). But I rather have problems unmolding it than using too much gelatin, the creamier the panna cotta, the better. And if the panna cotta refuses to come out of its mold at all costs – where’s the problem, you can serve them in nice little pots as well ;) Definitely a recipe to keep.
Blueberry Buttermilk Panna Cotta
Recipe Source: mix of various recipes, inspiration from Epicurious
Prep time: about 25 min., chilling: at least 8 hours
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Ingredients (serves 4):
200 ml cream
4 tsp sugar
1 vanilla bean
100 ml buttermilk
150g blueberries
2 sheets gelatine
for decoration: white chocolate
May 18th,
2005
What a gorgeous hue! These would be perfect for an afternoon tea or some other frilly event. The texture looks sublime, and I like the idea of the tartness of the fruit as a counterbalance to the rich cream.