Vanilla Panna Cotta
Cream set with just enough gelatine to hold its shape for a moment on the plate and then slump under the first spoon.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 6
- Revisions
- 2
Allergens
- Milk
Named from the ingredients as written, including those carried in from sub-recipes. This is not a guarantee — check the labels on what you actually buy, and note that a product’s recipe can change.
Ingredients
Method
Soak the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, until they are limp and floppy.
Use cold water. Warm water starts dissolving the sheets where they sit, and that setting power goes down the sink when you drain them.
Wipe six 150ml dariole moulds or ramekins with a little neutral oil on kitchen paper, leaving a film rather than a pool.
Set the moulds on a tray.
Put the cream, milk, the 90g of caster sugar, the vanilla seeds and pod and the fine salt into a pan.
Warm over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, until the surface trembles and steam comes off it steadily.
Take the pan off the heat before it boils.
Leave it to infuse for 10 minutes.
Lift the gelatine out of its water and squeeze it dry in your fist.
Stir it into the hot cream for about 30 seconds, until it has completely dissolved. Hold a spoonful up to the light and check no threads are left, because an undissolved thread sets as a rubbery streak.
Never let the pan boil once the gelatine is in. Prolonged heat breaks gelatine down and the panna cotta sets soft, or does not set at all.
Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug, which takes out the pod and anything that has not dissolved.
Cool the jug to room temperature, stirring now and then, about 20 minutes. Poured hot, the vanilla seeds sink and set as a black layer on what will be the top.
Divide the mixture between the moulds.
Chill for at least 5 hours, and overnight if you can, until the surface does not move when a mould is tilted.
Toss the strawberries with the tablespoon of caster sugar about 20 minutes before serving and leave them to give up their juice.
Run the tip of a small knife around the top edge of each mould.
Dip a mould into a bowl of hot water for a count of five and invert it onto a plate.
Shake it once, sharply, downwards. If it does not drop, dip it again for three seconds rather than digging at the edge with a knife.
Spoon the strawberries and their juice around the base.
Look at it as it settles. It should hold its shape for a moment and then slump slightly; a panna cotta that stands up firm and slices cleanly has too much gelatine in it and eats like a jelly.