My Baking Adventures

Nikki at Crazy Delicious has this fun challenge every month called the Master Baker. Now, if I’m getting the gist of it, it’s a little like Iron Chef. She chooses an ingredient, all the participants make something including that ingredient, and she selects a winner based upon which entry she likes the best - she also MAKES as many of the entries as she can. This month’s ingredient was vanilla. I had lots of ideas, and a few crazy ones too - I actually told Nikki I was going to make a souffle, but I kept coming back to this recipe. Maybe because there was chocolate involved? I don’t know.

I must preface this recipe by saying that first, it’s not my original recipe. I actually saw it on Judy’s website and thought, what a great idea! I know it’s not baked but I wanted to try this panna cotta after the last round I made with the buttermilk.

So I am giving credit to Judy, who in turned adapted it from Panna Cotta by Camilla V. Saulsbury. Now of course, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t make some changes of my own. First thing I did was make homemade raspberry jam. Now I’m not one of these uber-cool Martha Stewart types who cans my fruit and bottles my own jam - c’mon people, I live in the desert. Las Vegas isn’t known for it’s agriculture. The only things that grow out here are tumbleweeds. With that being said, I found an easy recipe for homemade jam on Recipezaar. Two ingredients. I repeat, 2 ingredients. Practically foolproof!! The only change I made to that recipe was to cut down on the sugar - waaaayyyy down. Whoa. I like sweet, but not when my tongue shrivels from sugar overload.

I also added vanilla to the chocolate layer - I think it enhances the chocolate flavor. And I doubled the vanilla in the vanilla layer. I wanted it to really stand out, to be noticed.

Another change I made to the recipe is to cool down the vanilla layer before attempting to ladle it on top of the chocolate. Ok, stop laughing now, you can only imagine what happened when I poured hot cream over the chilled chocolate layer. Yes, the vanilla layer looked like it had chocolate pox. *slaps forehead with hand* Well, I realized real quick that this wasn’t going to fly. I made an ice bath and cooled it down - so the remaining 5 glasses were pox-free.

A remarkable dessert - I think the elegance lies in its simplicity. It also tastes amazing - and the raspberry jam really nails it.

Ok, Nikki, here it is…..

Neapolitan Panna Cotta with Homemade Raspberry Jam

(recipe from Judy @ Gross Eats and adapted from Panna Cotta by Camilla V. Saulsbury)

Chocolate Layer:
Place 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon gelatin over the water and let stand 5 minutes to soften.

In a small saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups heavy cream and 2 tbs. sugar to a bare simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add 2 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted. Add the gelatin mixture, whisking until dissolved. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Ladle into 6 clear wineglasses, or martini glasses. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill until set, about 1 1/2 hours.

Vanilla Layer:
Prepare a shallow ice bath and set aside.

Place 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon gelatin over the water and let stand 5 minutes to soften.

In a small saucepan, bring 1 2/3 cups heavy cream and 2 tbs. sugar to a bare simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add in 2 tsp. vanilla and the gelatin mixture, stirring until dissolved. Set saucepan in an ice bath till the mixture is room temperature. Carefully ladle the vanilla mixture on top of the chocolate mixture. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours to set. Top each panna cotta with raspberry jam.

Raspberry Jam :
In large saucepan, combine 2 cups frozen raspberries. Bring to boil over medium heat and boil for 2 minutes. Stir in 1 cup sugar and boil for 2 minutes longer. Allow to cool, then refrigerate until set. Makes about 1 ½ cups.

Makes 6 servings