Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Panna Cotta

I've made panna cotta many times, but for some reason I've never made chocolate panna cotta. Well why not? It's so easy, so rewarding and decadently chocolate.  This is very simple recipe for whenever you are craving a chocolate dessert but don't have time for cupcakes or cake.  It's all about the gelatin and basically is foolproof to set properly.  I made some raspberry sauce a couple weeks ago that I canned (it was supposed to be raspberry jam, so it didn't turn out quite right.  However, raspberry sauce is great with chocolate and I was able to put some to good use to top the panna cotta.

Sasha's Chocolate Panna Cotta (makes 6) based on this recipe from Epicurious
1 cup skim milk
3 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 cups heavy whipping cream
5 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract

Spray six glass custard cups or individual sized souffle ramekins with Pam or canola oil. Pour milk into a bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it.  Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

Stir cream and sugar in saucepan over medium high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and take off heat.  Add the chocolate and whisk until melted and evenly combined.  Combine the chocolate mixture with the gelatin/milk mixture and stir in the vanilla. Make sure the mixture is evenly combined by blending in a blender, but do not overmix.  Divide in the six cups and chill 24 hours.  To plate, cut around the outside and flip over. It's panna cotta!!!

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Panna Cotta

Sasha's Kitchen: Vanilla Panna Cotta with Strawberries

Ah strawberries - my absolute favorite thing about spring. As a kid, there was nothing I loved more about spring than strawberry picking with my mom.  Right now, I have plans for two types of strawberry souffles (frozen and regular), and plenty of other uses for these fabulous sweet spring berries. This time of year, just about everything goes better with strawberries. Click here for my strawberry rhubarb pie. Panna cotta is an easy dessert that is wonderful with a multitude of berries. I decided to make some plain vanilla panna cottas and serve them with local fresh strawberries, and the dessert was perfect. Some might prefer to soak the strawberries, say in sugar or amaretto, but I prefer to just use the natural essence of the berries and keep the sugar down a bit, thus I simply sliced them up and served them with the panna cotta.

Sasha's Vanilla Panna Cotta with Strawberries (makes 4)
1 pint of fresh, local strawberries
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 small packets of instant gelatin
2 cups of organic heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch of kosher salt
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup cold water

Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan. Simmer ver low heat for about five minutes to dissolve the sugar. Set aside to cool for a few minutes. In a separate bowl, mix the gelatin and the cold water. Then add the hot water until all of the granules of gelatin are dissolved. Mix the gelatin-water mixture into the cream, and divide among four ramekins. Refrigerate for about eight hours.

To serve, cut around the edge of the ramekin with a knife and carefully remove from a ramekin. This takes a bit of extra work to get it out without destroying it in the process. Serve with fresh, local strawberries.

Sasha's Kitchen: Vanilla Panna Cotta with Strawberries

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Panna Cotta with Gingerbread Crust

I first made panna cotta for Thanksgiving last year, but it was just a plain panna cotta with a gingerbread/walnut crust. This year, I decided to instead go with a lovely pale orange pumpkin flavored panna cotta with a gingerbread/almond crust. This was a bit hit with the family at the Thanksgiving dinner that Brad and I hosted at our place with some of the people we are most thankful to have as part of our lives. This is quite easy to make. Other than baking the crust, it is no bake, and firms up fairly quickly in the refrigerator.  I am a huge fan of pumpkin anything this year, and so incorporating pumpkin into a dessert was a no-brainer. I had considered doing a pumpkin cheesecake (which I may do soon, regardless) but this is much healthier, but still showcases fall's favorite vegetable, the pumpkin.

Sasha's Pumpkin Panna Cotta With Almond-Gingerbread Crust
Crust
20 gingersnap cookies
2/3 cup almond slivers
1 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 T butter, melted
Filling
1 packed unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 T honey
1 1/2 cups 2% Greek yogurt
1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 T water

Preheat the oven to 325. In a food processor, separately puree the almonds and cookies. Combine in the food processor with the brown sugar and salt. Mix in the melted butter until the mixture has a wet but sandy texture. Press crumbs into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate that has been sprayed with PAM or Canola oil. Bake until golden brown for about 25 minutes and allow to cool.

To make the filling, place the water in a bowl with the contents of the gelatin packed and let stand for five minutes. In a small saucepan, add the cream, honey and salt and bring to a simmer. Add the gelatin and stir until dissolved. In a large bowl, combine the Greek yogurt, vanilla and pumpkin puree. Add the hot cream mixture to the bowl, and whisk to combine. Pour the mixture into the crust/pie plate. Allow to chill in the refrigerator, covered, for at least two hours.

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Panna Cotta with Gingerbread Crust

Sasha's Kitchen: Food & Wine Pairing: Amaretto Panna Cotta & Wagner Vineyards Riesling Ice Wine

I recently received several bottles of wine from New York's Wagner Vineyards, on the shores of Seneca Lake, as a gratuity, to review for this website.  Because I love Ice Wines, was so excited that I could hardly wait to do my first pairing, with the 2007 Wagner Vineyards Riesling Ice Wine.

Wagner Vineyards, on New York's Finger Lakes Wine Trail (specifically Seneca Lake), is well known, and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, for their Rieslings and Ice Wines.  They are one of the premier New York State Rieslings that have put Finger Lakes Wineries on the map.  Wagner is an Estate Winery, which means that all of the grapes are grown on vineyards located at the winery, for use in its wines.  It is one of the top Riesling and Ice Wine producers in the Finger Lakes and I am excited to have the chance to taste and review some of their wines.

I paired the 2007 Wagner Vineyards Riesling Ice Wine with my Amaretto-flavored panna cotta, topped with passion fruit caramelized apples.  The wine was a lively, fragrant and exciting Ice Wine.  It was not quite as sweet as the Canadian Ice Wines that I tasted on my wine tasting trip in Ontario.  However, it was a welcoming fruity dessert wine that was mild in its sweet overtures.  The wine had the pleasant aroma and taste of apples and raisins with tropical undertones.

I thought that the Wagner Ice Wine complemented the panna cotta nicely, and brought out the flavors in the amaretto and apples that incorporated into the dessert.  This was one of my favorite ice wines to date - a truly exemplary wine.  It was perfectly matched to the panna cotta.  The passion fruit used to caramelize the apples highlighted some of the tropical flavors in the Riesling Ice Wine as well.  This is not an overpowering dessert wine, but is a pleasant fruity Riesling Ice Wine.  It would also pair nicely with goat cheese or with creme brulee.  My husband and I really enjoyed it!

The panna cotta is quite easy to make, just allow a couple of hours for the dessert to solidify.  I chose to make it amaretto flavored because I have vast quantities of Amaretto from my liqueur making adventures (click here for my Amaretto recipe).  Below is my recipe for Amaretto Panna cotta, which I developed after looking at numerous recipes for plain panna cotta and creating my own that incorporated the subtle, sweet almond flavoring.  My recipe made three desserts, although this depends on the size of the bowls that you use as molds.

Sasha's Amaretto Panna Cotta With Caramelized Apples
1 envelope gelatin
2 1/2 T cold water
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 T Amaretto
1/3 cup passion fruit juice (for apples)
3 T sugar (for apples)
1 apple, peeled and sliced

To prepare the panna cotta, add the water to the gelatin.  Meanwhile, combine the cream, milk and sugar (a quarter cup) over medium heat and mix until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the amaretto and the gelatin and stir over medium heat until the gelatin is dissolved.  Do not allow the mixture to boil or bubble.  Pour into small glass bowls or ramekins, and refrigerate for two hours.  When the panna cotta is chilled, cut around the sides with a knife or toothpick until it comes out of the mold when you flip it over (this is a bit tricky, and I found the toothpick worked best to loosen the panna cotta).  I also caramelized some apple slices in 1/3 cup of passion fruit juice with 3 T of sugar and used these to top the panna cotta because the apple flavor complemented the Wagner Riesling Ice Wine so nicely.

Click here to read my wine pairing of Heron Hill Winery's Riesling With Cheese Fondue and click here to read my pairing of Rooster Hill Winery's Riesling with Apricot Almond Couscous.  Click here for my review of Ontario Ice Wines and here for Michelle's Review of Ontario Ice Winery Lailey Vineyards.

Sasha's Kitchen: Food & Wine Pairing: Amaretto Panna Cotta & Wagner Vineyards Riesling Ice Wine

Sasha's Kitchen: Post-Thanksgiving Blog on Thanksgiving Desserts

I would like more than anything to host Thanksgiving in our condo in Brooklyn, or to live somewhere with enough space to host my family and/or my in-laws under one roof. This is certainly a challenge I welcome. Unfortunately, we live in Park Slope and space isn't what it is in suburbia. So we have a nice dining room table that can hold six people. We did host passover for my Dad, stepmom Kim, sister Kaila and brother Josh, but that's just about the capacity we can handle here.

We did spend thanksgiving with my inlaws and I contributed two desserts: walnut-gingerbread panna cotta and pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The panna cotta is from the recent issue (November 2009) of Martha Stewart's everyday food and the recipe should be found online on the everdayfood.com website by doing a search for panna cotta.

This recipe was not hard at all - puree 20 gingerbread cookies and 3/4 cup walnuts in a miniprep to make the crust and mix with 3 T of butter and a T of brown sugar. Then press into a pie plate. The crust then should be baked at 325 until lightly browned for about 25 minutes.

The filling is prepared first by heating 1/2 cut heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of honey and a quarter teaspoon salt. Then I whisked in a package of gelatin that had been activated in 3 tablespoons of water. The gelatin is what will ultimately make the panna cotta congeal. Finally, away from the heat, I added 1 3/4 cup greek yogurt (you must use greek yogurt, not plain yogurt - I chose to use 2% greek yogurt, however) and 3/4 a teasopon of vanilla.

Next the filling is added and the panna cotta should be refrigerated for 2 hours.




In addition, I made a fruit topping similar to the one in the book, which called for a chutney-like jam made of dried plums, brown sugar and orange zest. Instead of the dried plums, I substituted dried figs and it was delicious.

As far as the pumpkin cookies - I am not sure where the recipe came from but I have been making them since I was a kid. The recipe calls for mixing the following in a mixer - 2 sticks of butter, 1 1/3 cups Quaker oats. 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup of splenda-sugar (half sugar-half splenda), 1 cup libby's pumpkin puree, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Make into cookies and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until lightly browned.

One great way to make these cookies is to make them large and decorate them with pumpkin faces. This is perfect for with kids for halloween and I can't wait to do this with my own children every year like my mom did with me. You can decorate them with different color cake icings, m and ms, candy corns etc . . .

The creativity with these cookies is endless and perfect for children - like I said, I cannot wait to make these cookies with my own kids. They're also perfect for the adult who likes to be a kid. I looked forward to doing this every year at Halloween with my mom. I should add that the ones I made for thanksgiving were not decorated, however, but I figured the pumpkin was still seasonal and they seemed to be enjoyed just the same.

Sasha's Kitchen: Post-Thanksgiving Blog on Thanksgiving Desserts