Stylish Panna Cotta

Ohh how much I love preparing those little desserts! Perfect with coffee, vanilla-flavoured jelly-like dessert, easy to prepare and without using the oven :) It looks elegant on a party table and prepared in a more sophisticated way - it will impress Your guests :)

Panna Cotta might be prepared in dozen of different flavours(many different extracts might be used instead of vanilla - like almond, coconut, rum, citrus ones...) and in many different shapes(it is up to You what kind of receptacle or form You'll pour it into :) )

Original recipe from this website.

I have found all these wonders on Pinterest (click on the link and all the wonders will appear ;) ) and I thought - oh my God, it is so easy and looks so classy and stylish! How is it possible that I haven't thought about it earlier?! :)

So here I'm sharing with You that big secret of preparing those wonderful panna cottas :)

Ingredients: (for 4-7 portions)

• 3 teaspoons of powdered gelatin
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 250 ml of 30-36% cream
• 250 ml of milk (2-3,2% of fat, not less)
• 80 g of sugar

Optional ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of rum 
• 1 tablespoon of white wine

Decoration:

• Fresh fruit (for instance: strawberries, raspberries, wild strawberries, cherries), fruit mousse, 
• caramel, 
• chocolate, 
• nuts, 
• small meringues, 
• etc. :)

Preparation:

It depends what shape would you like to have. 

1. If You want jelly on the bottom - it goes first, stiffens completely, then You pour cooled down (! not to melt the jelly) panna cotta mixture and put back in the fridge.
2. If the jelly is supposed to be the last layer, panna cotta must be completely ready, after a few hours in the fridge and the jelly You pour on it must be cool too, not to melt panna cotta.
3. If You fancy a slantwise one - first of all, pour the jelly and put the tumbler/etc for instance inside the muffin pan (so that it remains stable, in a-slant position), put in the fridge to let it stiffen completely and after that pour cooled down panna cotta mixture.
4. There are plenty other variations of preparing panna cottas, You'll find it - mostly with instructions - here :)

General instructions, to make panna cotta:

1. Put the gelatin in a tumbler and suffuse it with 2 tablespoons of water. Leave it for 5 minutes.
2. Take a pot and put the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla extract inside. Stir till the sugar is melted.
3. Add optional ingredients if you want to.
4. Boil and take it out quickly from your cooker. Add the gelatin and stir quickly for more or less 1 minute till the gelatin melts completely.
5. Pour the mixture into cups.
6. Cool it. Cover with (for example) aluminium foil and put in the fridge for at least 4 hours (entire night advisable)

• How to take Panna Cotta out of the cup?

If You use such nice transparent tumblers, there is no need to take the panna cottas out of them, unless you want to.

To take it out easily you can put the cup for a few seconds in hot water. Then, keep the cup upside down and shake more or less gently till it comes unstuck from the cup's side. Be careful it may fall down!
Another way is just to put the knife inside the cup's edge and cut it inside near to the edges of the cup.

Fruit Jellies

Very tasty, fruity, healthy, natural jellies, possible to be prepared from many different fruit, especially, if you have no idea, what to do with them or when they are...way too ripe ;) 
Lack of artificial substances is undoubtedly their biggest advantage.
They might be sprinkled with sugar (though I prefer sugar-free jellies :) ). It is a quick, light and delicious form of confectionery. My little naphew's face and hands are all in strawberry jelly now, so I guess they're tasty, hi hi ;)
Recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 30 g of gelatin
• 1 glass of water
• 1-2 glasses of sugar (it depends how sweet you want your fruit puree to be)
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 500-600 g of fruit (either frozen or fresh - preferably: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, currants, cherries)*

* I mixed blueberries with strawberries, which is why they are so dark.

Optional ingredients:

• sugar or powdered sugar - to sprinkle the jellies

Preparation:

1. Take a bigger, clean pot and put the fruit inside. Boil for 15 minutes. Grate through the sieve, to seperate puree and kernels. 
2. Take only 3/4 glass of the mousse** to prepare jellies. Put the glass with mousse aside.
3. Take another pot, put gelatin inside and pour the water. Wait for 4 minutes. Heat, till all the gelatin melts (stir). Add 1-2 glasses of sugar, boil and  stir till the sugar melts. Add lemon juice. 
4. Boil for around 10 minutes on a very low heat. Turn off the heat and leave the mixture for 5 minutes. Take away the foam if any appears.
5. Mix with fruit mousse.
6. Take a flat form, cover with cling film or foil. Pour the mixture inside. Put it in the fridge for around 12 hours, or till the jelly stiffens.
7. After that time, take it out of the form and cut it in any shape you like - you can use only a knife to make small squares or cookie cutters to make shapes.
8. Sprinkle with sugar/powdered sugar - preferably only those you want to eat now.
9. Jellies can remain (in a closed box) in the fridge for max. 2 weeks. 
10. Bon appetit! :)

** Here are some ideas on how can you use the rest of the mousse:

• Custard Pancakes
• Home-made chocolates
• Ice-cream
• Panna Cotta
• Semifreddo Cake a'la Tiramisu
• Smoothie
• Sweet Omelette
• Yoghurt Pancakes

Classical Panna Cotta

Ohh how much I love preparing those little desserts! Perfect with coffee, vanilla-flavoured jelly-like dessert, easy to prepare and without using the oven :) 

Panna Cotta might be prepared in dozen of different flavours(many different extracts might be used instead of vanilla - like almond, coconut, rum, citrus ones...) and in many different shapes(it is up to You what kind of receptacle or form You'll pour it into :) )

Original recipe from this website.

Ingredients: (for 4-7 portions)

• 3 teaspoons of powdered gelatin
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 250 ml of 30-36% cream
• 250 ml of milk (2-3,2% of fat, not less)
• 80 g of sugar

optional ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of rum 
• 1 tablespoon of white wine

Decoration:

Fresh fruit(for instance: strawberries, raspberries, wild strawberries, cherries), fruit mousse, caramel, chocolate, nuts

Preparation:

1. Put the gelatin in a tumbler and suffuse it with 2 tablespoons of water. Leave it for 5 minutes.
2. Take a pot and put the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla extract inside. Stir till the sugar is melted.
3. Add optional ingredients if you want to.
4. Boil and take it out quickly from your cooker. Add the gelatin and stir quickly for more or less 1 minute till the gelatin melts completely.
5. Pour the mixture into cups.
6. Cool it. Cover with (for example) aluminium foil and put in the fridge for at least 4 hours (entire night advisable)

• How to take Panna Cotta out of the cup?

To take it out easily you can put the cup for a few seconds in hot water. Then, keep the cup upside down and shake more or less gently till it comes unstuck from the cup's side. Be careful it may fall down!

Another way is just to put the knife inside the cup's edge and cut it inside near to the edges of the cup.

Malakoff Cake

Deriving from Austria, this cake isn't as hard as it seems to be. Mostly, because it doesn't require turning on the oven even for a single second ;)

Personally, I wouldn't call it a gourmet sensation, but it is, indeed, very tasty and its appearance is impressive on the table.

The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 25 dag/250g of ladyfingers 

Filling: 

• 1/2 jar of black currant/raspberry jelly 
• 1,5 glass of milk 
• 1 vanilla pudding 
• 4 tablespoons of sugar 
• 25 dag/250g of butter 
• 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar 
• 10 dag/100g almond flakes (the original recipe requires roasting them, but I skipped that part) 

Punch:

• 1/2 glass of white wine 
• 50 ml of rum 
• 2 teaspoons of sugar 

Decoration:

• whipped cream 
• whatever you want - you can use ready-made chocolate decorations, chocolate biscuits, (candied) cherries, blueberries, etc

Preparation:

1. Prepare the pudding (boil it with milk and sugar, as the  recipe on the packing says), cool it. 
2. Take a food processor, put the butter and powdered sugar inside and mix. Without stopping add one tablespoon of pudding, then another, till you mix all the pudding with butter and powdered sugar. 
3. Mix all the ingredients of the punch (use any container you want, even a glass)
4. Prepare a springform pan, cover the bottom with ladyfingers (preferably only one tier). Impregnate these ladyfingers with your punch. (1-2 teaspoons of punch per 1 ladyfinger is much enough, you'll see in what way your ladyfingers will react on 1 teaspoon of the punch - be careful not to make a mush)
5. Take the currant/raspberry jelly and using a spoon, put some spoons of the jelly on a different parts of the ladyfingers, then link so that it covers the entire surface of the cake.
6. Take the cream, prepared in the food processor, put a thick filling of it on the jelly. Don't worry if your jelly mixes a little with the cream. It is very hard to avoid it. If the entire surface is covered with cream, sprinkle it with some almond flakes. 
7. Repeat points 4-6(ladyfingers, jelly,cream, flakes) till all the ladyfingers are gone. (save some cream for the side of the cake)There should be 2-3 tiers. The last tier are almond flakes. 
8. Put your cake in the fridge.
9. When the cake (especially the cream) gets harder (after some time, 1-3 hours) take off the side and use the rest of the cream on the cake's side. Then sprinkle cake's side with almond flakes. 
10. Decorate the top of your cake with anything you want - biscuits, chocolate decorations, whipped cream, etc
11. Keep the cake in the fridge.
12. Bon appetit :)