Espresso Panna Cotta

Hello all!

Today I made espresso panna cotta.

First off, my mental state recently has been stable, with only a minor amount of anxiety, though I have been quite stressed out with many things being due at the same time. While making my panna cotta, I forgot about everything to do with school, all stress was lifted from my shoulders and I was completely engrossed in my baking. Though, as when making panna cotta and a brittle timing is everything, and it is very easy to burn things, so it was a little stressful.

The whole process went smoothly, though I was unable to procure hazelnuts, so I had to settle for walnuts for the brittle. Additionally, here in Canada you can’t get double cream, but you can use whipping cream as a substitute and you can’t get leaves of gelatin, but the conversion is three gelatin leaves per one tbsp. pouch of gelatin. I started by making a pot of espresso in my stovetop espresso maker, then when that was done, I measured out all my ingredients and began to mix and heat the cream, whole milk, espresso and caster sugar on a medium low heat. While this was heating up, I turned on the oven to toast the walnuts and put a cup of caster sugar in a pan to start creating the caramel. Now, at this point there are three things going on, all of which need to be watched very closely as all can burn very quickly. As things were heating up, I prepped a baking sheet with a silicone mat to pour the eventual caramel, cinnamon and walnut mixture on to cool and harden. Once the caster sugar had completely turned to a liquid, I added the cinnamon and walnuts and mixed it together. I then poured it over the silicone mat to cool and harden. It was at this point I almost forgot to check on the mixture for my actual panna cotta, so I quickly pulled it off the heat and added the gelatin. Once the gelatin was dissolved, I poured the mixture through a sieve into a bowl to filter out any lumps, and there were a few. From here I used a ladle to transfer the mixture into a silicone muffin tray, put it on a wire rack and placed it into the fridge to set. After it had began to set, I threw it into the freezer to speed up the process. After a couple hours it was all set and I put one on a plate, placed some walnut brittle around it and dug in!

The panna cotta was very rich and smooth with a nice coffee taste. The espresso really starred in the flavours. The texture was quite smooth with no lumps. My only complaint is that I can’t eat more than half of a serving as I am lactose intolerant!

I hope you enjoyed reading my experience with making espresso panna cotta! Check in next week for another treat!