Sunday, February 27, 2011

February Daring Bakers Challenge - Panna Cotta and Florentines

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I was so excited when this month's challenge was announced. I had seen panna cotta before, and had wanted to try my hand at it, but, for some reason, I never tried. It could be that the versions of panna cotta that I had seen before were on foodgawker, and looked so exquisitely fancy that I was a little intimidated. Or it could be that I am always a little wary of recipes calling for gelatin, since I have had the oh-so-fun experience of getting the proportions wrong with that ingredient before. Or it could be that I have a very long baking-wish-list, and I just hadn't gotten to it yet. But this was my perfect opportunity!

And to make it even more fun, when daddy saw the challenge, he was super excited about the florentines. Apparently he loves them, and was very excited at the prospect of me learning to make them. Worked out well!

Panna cotta is a classic Italian dessert. The name itself literally translates to "cooked cream," and that is pretty much what the recipe is - a stabilized cooked creamy almost custard type of dessert. It is relatively simple to make, yet is smooth, creamy, delicious, and can be prepared and presented very elegantly and beautifully.

I chose to make vanilla panna cotta. Here's how it went:

First, I softened the gelatin by sprinkling it over milk:











After a few minutes, the gelatin was softened up, and the mixture looked kind of like a bowl of brains:











(a little hard to see, what with the picture being white on white, but seriously, I looked in the bowl and thought it looked like a brain...)

Anyway, while the gelatin was doing its thing, I also measured my cream, and, to up the vanilla flavor of my dessert, added the seeds and pod of a vanilla bean to soak in it:











Once all of my ingredients were measured, prepared, soaked and softened, it was time to combine them in a saucepan:











And then pour the cooked mixture into ramekins:











Then the ramekins went into the fridge so that they could cool and set.

I knew that I wanted a fruit component to my panna cotta dessert, and, as luck would have it, blueberries were on sale that week. So I mixed together a simple blueberry sauce from some apple juice, sugar and the fresh blueberries. I let all of the ingredients cook down and simmer until most of the blueberries had burst, then let the sauce cool. It then joined the panna cotta in the refrigerator to wait until dessert time.

After dinner, I was very excited to prepare our dessert. I was anxious to see if the panna cotta had actually set, and to see if I would actually be able to remove them from the ramekins, yet have them retain their shape.

It was interesting to see how each member of the family chose to prepare their dessert. Little miss did not want to bother with un-molding her serving. Nor did she want to bother with the blueberry sauce. She chose to garnish her panna cotta with chocolate chips:










Me? I tried to make mine simple, un-molding the panna cotta and serving it with the blueberry sauce:











Daddy? He chose the best of both worlds:











Yes, that is panna cotta, topped with whipped cream and chocolate chips, with a side of blueberry sauce. He take dessert very seriously!

The next day, it was time to tackle the florentine cookies. Florentines are a thin, almost lacy oat cookie. They are also super fun to make with a four year old sidekick, as they are prepared differently from any other cookie she has ever made. When I told her we were making cookies, she thought she knew what she was in for, but when I told her that we would not need the mixer, she was confused. Then when I told her that we would be making our cookies in a pot, she was amused.

The florentine recipe provided called for two ingredients that I didn't have. Well, kind of. The recipe called for quick oats. I never have quick oats in the house, but almost always have old fashioned oats. A quick bit of research taught me that the only difference between old fashioned and quick oats are the size of the pieces - quick oats have been chopped to make them smaller, thus allowing them to cook more quickly. No problem - I just gave my old fashioned oats a quick spin in the mini-blender (seriously - about two seconds did the trick!), and we were in business.

The other ingredient that I didn't have was dark corn syrup. I have light corn syrup. A couple more minutes on google taught me that the difference between dark and light corn syrup is molasses, an ingredient I also had on hand.

Handy conversions ready to go, we were ready to bake.

To make the florentines, butter is melted in a saucepan, and then all of the other ingredients are mixed right in that same pot:











The resulting cookie dough was thick and sticky. And thanks to their being no eggs in the dough, we were able to confirm that the dough is also quite delicious.











We then spooned it out onto our baking sheets, where little miss helped to carefully flatten out the balls of dough before I put them into the oven.











The final step in preparing these cookies is to add chocolate. Usually, two florentine cookies are sandwiched together with chocolate. As the cookies themselves are very sweet, dark chocolate is a favored choice. Me? I chose semi-sweet.
We sandwiched about half of the cookies, but I chose not to sandwich all of them because, even for a sweet-tooth dessert lover like me, that made for a pretty big cookie. For the rest of the cookies, I made designs with the chocolate for a delicious decoration:











I have to say, this was really a wonderful challenge, and a great pairing of desserts. The cool, creamy panna cotta and the crisp, sweet florentine were each so much fun, and together made for a really decadent dessert.


Mallory, thank you so much for this wonderful challenge. I am so glad that you gave me the excuse and opportunity to finally make panna cotta. I am so excited to try my hand at so many different flavors and variations now!

I highly recommend checking out the impressive and amazing work of the other Daring Bakers this month - they went above and beyond in creating some amazing, beautiful desserts this month. You can check them out here.

Can't wait to see what next month brings!

41 comments:

  1. WOW you really did have a fun time doing the challenge didn't you and I adore your sous chef she is so cute and yes these would be the perfect recipes to do with kids. Wonderful looking cookies thin and lacy well done and great to hear that everybody could do their own versions of the decoration on the panna cotta. Bravo!

    Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

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  2. Shelley, First, thank you for all your encouragement to all DBs at the forums. You always have such lovely words for everyone!
    Your Panna Cotta looks really yummy and I loved little miss' choice... wasn't surprised though :o)
    And your Florentines came out so lacy and look so crispy! Mine were delicious, but somewhat cookie like.

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  3. Your florentines look lovely, and what a good helper you have! Her chocolate chip choice is very sound.

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  4. Great job! I made blueberry sauce, too, but yours looks divine! Good thinking on having different toppings on hand. Your cookies look great, I love the one with the heart!

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  5. What a beautiful dish. Your florentines turned out so perfectly & I love the idea of blueberry compote with the panna cotta. It looks so striking with the deep crimson against the white.

    I absolutely agree about the brains, by the way. :)

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  6. Very nice, Shelley! I too thought the original gelatin/milk mix looked like brain matter. :) Nice job on the challenge!

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  7. Love your post! And that there are always little hands and little people helping you out in the kitchen :)

    You were so smart to google the difference between light and dark corn syrup. I just replaced it and felt my cookies came out a bit on the bland side until I added the chocolate to them. Now I know why. The dark corn syrup/molasses would have sweetened them up!

    Congratulations on another successful challenge! It looks delicious :D

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  8. That looks gorgeous, both pannacotta and florentines has turned out prefect for you.

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  9. I love how you got the whole family involved, and your results are perfect! I love the do-it-yourself toppings.
    :)

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  10. Have to agree with Renata about your encouragement at the forum threads. Like the cute hearts on your panna cotta and florentines. A great idea to have each one finish the panacotta to their liking.

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  11. Looks lovely - well done! So cute that you added your own toppings :)

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  12. I love the colors of this dish! The blueberries are so striking and I bet they tasted fabulous with the panna cotta! Excellent work on this challenge.

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  13. Great post this month. Your florentines look great. I must try it with the oats next time. My little one loves to help out in the kitchen as well!

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  14. Your panna cotta looks superb with its luscious blueberry sauce. This was my first time making panna cotta too, which was pretty exciting.

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  15. Lovely plating, fancy the hearts. You did a great job!

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  16. Mmm, the blueberry topping is making me drool. Lovely panna cotta!

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  17. That looks great! Mmmm....Blueberries!

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  18. I really enjoyed reading how each one of you personalized the dessert. Thanks for sharing the tip on quick oats. Good job on both the panna cotta and the cookies!

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  19. Your panna cotta looks fantastic! I am with Daddy, chocolate and blueberries and sauce, we cant have too much of a perfect thing!

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  20. Very well done! Both creations look delicious and beautiful. I love your take on the challenge.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  21. Wonderful results for both recipes, blueberries are excellent with the panna cotta. I love the internet for finding substitutes too lol

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  22. the ltitle hearts on top are soooo cute. Buttercreambarbie

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  23. I laughed when you compared softened gelatine to brains - it hadn't occurred to me, but that's a pretty fair comparison! Everything looks beautiful, lovely presentation, and perfect cookies!

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  24. What a brilliant idea to let each person dress their own. I would never have thought of adding chocolate chips. I think you're husband is right - go for the works! Looks delicious1

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  25. Wow that was a family challenge, I love all versions, they all look so yummy

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  26. Yum, I love the blueberry topping you made! It looks gorgeous with the panna cotta and the florentines look delicious! Great job on this challenge!

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  27. Hey Shelley,
    Great to hear from you!
    I love your Panna cotta. I LOVE the blueberies.
    You did such a beautiful job with this challenge.
    I see you had a great assistant. Lucky you!

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  28. I think Little Miss has the right idea! And the daddy's choice is great too! Love the step-by-step instructions.

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  29. Aha ha ha ha, bowl of brains! Gorgeous work on your panna cotta and cookies. I salute Daddy's dedication to dessert :)

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  30. Panna cotta and berries is such a classic combo but it's always brilliant! Nicely done :D

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  31. I love the blueberries! But then I'm a blueberry fiend. I love how little miss went for the chocolate chips but daddy totally went all out and did both chocolate chips and blueberries with the whipped cream on top! Go all out! Why not?

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  32. I loved your post...so much fun reading about how each of you prepared your panna cotta for eating. I would have added both the blueberry and chocolate chips too! Your florentines are lacy perfection, as is the perfect chocolate drizzle (I'm a terrible drizzler!!). Phenomenal job, Shelly..it all looks wonderful and yummy!

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  33. Chocolate chips on panna cotta topping is a perfect combination. I love the ♥s on both panna cotta and cookie.:)

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  34. wow i love your florentine and panna cotta~
    I too have only old fashioned oats at home and I didn't blend it at all...turn out (taste-wise) perfect, but I guess because the size of the oats the dough was not spreading so much ..I'll not be that lazy next time and try to blend the oats like you did, hopefully I can make the florentines as lacy and pretty like yours :D

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  35. I have to admit the first time I made Panna cotta I was a bit scared too. ;-)

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  36. Simple is always good:) I bet the blueberries tasted wonderful with the creamy panna cotta. Great job:)

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  37. Both are lovely and looks really delicious! I really like the heart-shaped deco :-)

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  38. I made the panna cotta for the first time, too :) The way your daddy ate his panna cotta is great! Next time I'll try with whipped cream and chocolate chips, too!

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  39. What a great job on this challenge. Looks so delicious. Love the little hearts on your florentines. :) Panna Cotta was such an incredible experience. I will be making it again and again. :)

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