Daring Baker’s Challenge Multi-layer Panna Cotta & Florentines

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

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I love puddings.  Panna cotta is wonderful version.  It’s usually made with gelatin rather than cornstarch and this gives it often a lighter feel.

~ For this challenge, I had never made a multi-layered panna cotta and was very excited for an excuse to do so.  Here’s a picture of the 2 and 3 layer versions made with the 2 types of gelatin and 1 type of gelée that I made.

~You can find the recipe on the Daring Kitchen site.  First I made the chocolate panna cotta.  I used 60% Ghiradelli (because I always have this in my house).  I checked it after 1 hour but it took a little more than 2 hours to set.

~While the panna cotta glasses set, I made the Nestle Florentine cookies.  For one set, I flattened as per instructions but parts remained less cooked than others.  Then I made the inside less dense than the outer edge.  This worked fairly well for one batch.  The final batch with only slightly more on the edge was the best.

After 2 hours, I made the almond panna cotta.  The recipe supplied is a vanilla panna cotta.  I replaced the milk with almond milk (unsweetened).  What’s amazing is that the recipe has a vanilla essence without adding any vanilla extract.  To boost the almond flavor a bit, I added ¼ tsp of almond extract.  I let the mixture cool (almost 25 minutes stirring every so often.)  Then I carefully poured the mixture on top of some of the glasses with 2 glasses reserved for just a little of this almond mixture.

~Because the layer was not as thick and the glass/chocolate panna cotta was so cold, it didn’t take as long to set.  I waited about 1-1 ½ hours.  I then made a raspberry gelée.  First I took some frozen raspberries (10 oz although a larger amount would have been better).  I put it through a sieve in order to remove as many of the seeds as possible.  After getting about 8 oz, I made the recipe.  (I did just barely heat the raspberry/sugar until it was melted and heated for 2-3 minutes rather than 5.  I also melted the gelatin and water mixture separately and added to the fruit.  This allowed it take a lot less time to cool.)  After cooling I carefully poured a thin layer on top of the all the glasses.  (I had a lot of extra chocolate mixture and didn’t quite have enough raspberry gelée to give a thicker layer.)

~While waiting for the gelée to set, I drizzled chocolate on top of the cookies.

~I was so excited that I used different types of glasses.  Here’s my picture that is similar to the one in the challenge.

We enjoyed the flavor of all of these panna cotta.  If I made the chocolate one again, I would put the chocolate/cream mixture through a sieve before adding to the gelatin/milk mixture.  I’m not sure I’d make the Florentines again.  I might make some other type of cookie that matched what I was doing in the panna cotta.  The look of the multi-layer was fantastic but took a long time –  Clearly the almond/raspberry was good enough.  The whole challenge was definitely worth the effort.

Here’s a picture with the cookie balanced on the edge – it almost looks like it’s floating above…

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