Panna Cotta
Cream set with the smallest amount of gelatin that will hold. It should barely stand up and wobble when the plate moves.
- Prep
- 15m
- Cook
- 10m
- Waiting
- 5h
- Total
- 5h 25m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Easy
Scale
Units
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 2 cups | Heat until steaming — do not boil 8m | Stir the softened gelatin into the hot cream until dissolved 3m Off the heat. Boiling gelatin weakens its setting power. | Pour into moulds and chill at least 4 hours 4h | |
| 1 cup | ||||
| 1/3 cup | ||||
| 1 | ||||
| a pinch | ||||
| 3 | Soak in cold water until floppy 6m Bloom the gelatin first or it forms rubbery strands in the cream. | |||
| to cover | ||||
| to serve | ||||
-
Heat until steaming — do not boil
8m- double cream 2 cups
- whole milk 1 cup
- caster sugar 1/3 cup
- vanilla pod 1
- fine salt a pinch
-
Soak in cold water until floppy
6m- gelatin leaves 3
- cold water to cover
Bloom the gelatin first or it forms rubbery strands in the cream.
-
Stir the softened gelatin into the hot cream until dissolved
3m- from 1 Heat until steaming — do not boil
- from 2 Soak in cold water until floppy
Off the heat. Boiling gelatin weakens its setting power.
-
Pour into moulds and chill at least 4 hours
4h- from 3 Stir the softened gelatin into the hot cream until dissolved
- berries or poached fruit (optional) to serve
As little gelatin as you dare
Five grams of gelatin per litre of liquid gives a set that only just holds when turned out — which is what you want. Most recipes use twice that and produce something closer to a jelly. If you are serving it in a glass rather than unmoulding, you can go lower still.
Notes
- Bloom the gelatin in cold water first, then squeeze it out. Sprinkled dry into hot liquid it clumps.
- Never boil. Above about 85 °C gelatin starts to break down and the set gets unreliable.
- To unmould, dip the base in hot water for three seconds — no longer.