Panna cotta—literally "cooked cream"— is a silky, eggless custard, thickened here with a touch of gelatin. Though often served unmolded, E. Michael Reidt's vanilla bean panna cotta is so tender that he serves it in ramekins.
Panna cotta should have a texture that is just firm, with a slight wobble. This recipe, as written, produces panna cotta that has the consistency of pudding (not good). To get the right texture, modify this recipe slightly.
Instead of the 2 1/4 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin called for in the ingredients (equivalent of 1 powdered gelatin packet), dissolve 2 powdered gelatin packets in 1/4 cup of water. Add to warm cream and dissolve as called for in the recipe.
And if you don’t have a vanilla bean, I used 2 tsp of vanilla extract in its place with good results. No need to steep either. Just warm it with the cream and sugar, take off the heat, add the gelatin and continue with the recipe.
Happy dessert making!
The amount of Gelatine stated in this recipe was off… it didn’t set at all with 2 1/4 tsp. I used another recipe with the same volume of cream and used two sachet of unflavored gelatin powder and it had set perfectly.
This was my first attempt at making Panna Cotta. I had Panna Cotta for the first time, in Italy...about 4 years ago. I fell in LOVE. The flavor of this was good...but the texture was slightly too firm. Next time I would back off the gelatin a tad. Maybe do 2 teaspoons instead of 2 and 1/4