On today's episode of In the Kitchen,
I've transported myself to the lavender fields of France.
Thanks to Emily Spurlin’s traditional Italian panna cotta dessert.
You can make it taste however you want
and I decided to give mine a French spin.
All right, so we are going to get started on our panna cotta
We're gonna use a saucepan and
we're gonna get the heat up to about medium to medium-high.
We're gonna add two cups of heavy cream and
You want to heat up the cream until it's steaming but not yet simmering.
It's gonna take anywhere from two to three minutes.
It's time for the choose-your-own -adventure of this panna cotta.
You want to turn the heat off.
While this dessert is typically Italian, I feel like going to France
so I'm gonna add a bunch of mint.
I'm also going to add some tarragon.
It's gonna add some like anise or black licorice flavor
and then we're gonna add some lavender.
Purple rain!
Yeah, Prince!
and we're just gonna let this all steep in the cream for about 20 minutes
until it hits your desired flavor.
You can also add other flavors like chamomile. You could add lemon rose geranium
and this is where you can kind of make this panna cotta your own.
So now we're gonna let this steep for about 20 minutes.
And you can taste the cream after about 20 minutes and see if that's
the intensity of flavor that you want
from the herbs and flowers that you've added.
My kitchen smells what I imagined Julia Child's entire life smelled like.
So I think we're good to go
and we're just going to strain out all of the herbage.
This is where all the flavor is gonna come from in the panna cotta so
you want to make sure that you do not skimp out on getting all of your cream as we can.
Now it's time to bloom our gelatin.
I have no idea what that means but it sounds awesome.
To do so we need to add half a cup of whole milk.
Make sure you're using whole milk: the fat content is important.
and we're gonna use 1 packet of unflavored gelatin
again make sure it's unflavored because we just made that delicious cream.
So we're gonna add our gelatin. Just sprinkle it on top of your milk.
And we're just gonna let this sit for about 5 minutes until
the crystals just start to dissolve.
Looks like skin.
Okay our gelatin has bloomed.
and we're gonna add this to our pot.
Whisk is probably not the best tool to use right now, but we're gonna use it a little bit.
This will do!
We're gonna let the milk get warm on your stovetop do not let it come to a simmer.
Warm up until all of the gelatin has dissolved.
All right the gelatin has dissolved into the warm milk
and now we're going to add a quarter cup of honey
I'm gonna eyeball this, because I once again despise measuring honey.
I'm gonna turn the heat off also.
So this is gonna add a bunch of sweetness
because we haven't added any sugar or anything sweet to this dessert yet.
There we go!
And we're gonna add our infused delicious cream.
Back to France with the lavender and the mint and the tarragon.
We're just gonna whisk this all until it combines.
Told you we're gonna use the whisk!
Just make sure that the honey and the salt and your creams
combined with the milk and the gelatin.
I cannot wait to see what this gelatin does.
The liquid mess soon become panna cotta!
The entire time of been making this there's been a song running through my head
(sings)
Everything's incorporated so now you just
want this mixture to come to room temperature.
I made sure it's come to room temperature
and now we're gonna add our last ingredient.
A half of a cup of buttermilk.
We're gonna want to whisk this in.
This is gonna add a really nice tang.
And now it's time to pour our mixture into some ramekins.
If you don't have ramekins you can use any like really pretty little bowl that you might have.
Just make sure that they are small in size.
You don't want to go make like a punch bowl of panna cotta.
We're going to carefully pour our
mixture into a ramekin.
Now we have our four little beauties in our little ramekins
and we're going to cover them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge
for anywhere to four or five hours until the gelatin sets
and we've got a delicious dessert which I cannot wait to eat!
So it's been 4 to 5 hours.
Our Panna cottas have set up, so they're super firm.
It's time to decorate our panna cotta
and this is where you can kind of let whoever you're giving these
to know what types of ingredients you infused your cream with.
I'm gonna add honey on top for some sweetness
and then I'm gonna add a few beautiful mint leaves.
I'm gonna finish with some sprigs of lavender.
Like a little corsage for my panna cotta.
Panna cotta will you go to prom with me?
And there we go, we have our very traditional Italian panna cotta dessert
but with a French twist.
And it's time to eat!
I went and got myself a gold spoon because this dessert I feel like deserves it.
I'm also picturing myself in a field with the bees buzzing
and the sun is hitting me
and there's lavender everywhere.
I just cannot wait to taste this!
This is so creamy.
Ridiculously packed with flavor.
This thing is loaded with lavender, mint, and tarragon
and a little sweetness from the honey.
I've essentially captured the French countryside and the dish
and I just want to go enjoy this by myself
So I'll see you guys next time.
Au revoir!