This dessert will blow your guests away and it’s so simple!   An Italian cooked cream  desert that is luscious but still light it’s almost magical.  What’s so incredible about Panna Cotta is you can make it ahead of time; prepare this easy recipe morning of or the day before allow it to chill and it will perfect any meal.

A few time saving tips and tricks I use;

– Pour your Panna Cotta to set in the dish you would like to serve it in.  Then you don’t have to worry about greasing the mold and getting it to set up perfectly and praying it comes out of the mold perfectly.  For this meal I used tea cups and I think you will agree nothing has been cuter!

– You can also bypass using vanilla bean and save 35 minutes by using high quality vanilla extract.  Stay tuned for my Holiday Series; Homemade Gifts for the recipe for homemade vanilla extract!

Panacotta

4 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract – the better the quality the better the taste!

2 packets powdered gelatin

6 tablespoons cold water

1. Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan.  Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. You can use fresh vanilla bean by removing cream/sugar mix from heat and splitting bean scraping seeds into cream mixture with pod cover and let sit for 30 minutes.  Then remove bean and gently reheat prior to adding gelatin.
2.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Pour the very warm Panna Cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved
4. Divide the Panna Cotta mixture into the prepared cups, then chill at least two hours.
5. To use a mold grease with almond oil or any other neutral tasting oil.  Let Panna Cotta set up at least 4 hours, run a knife along the edge of mold place bottom of mold in hot water, invert on desired dish, garnish and serve.

About marcellaroses

I love to entertain, to create things from scratch, come up with new ways to do things and sharing how easy and simple it all is! I'm a baker, a maker, a cooking innovator, a cleaner and a dreamer and one great entertainer! I hope you will join me and together we can cook up some fun!

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