You Deserve This Unusual No-Bake Dessert
I’m a big fan of dinner parties. I like to go to them, and I like to receive them. It’s an opportunity to get together with the people you love and share stories and all that warm and fluffy stuff, which is great, but mostly it’s an opportunity to show off. If you’ve been perfecting Beef Wellington with Homemade Puff Pastry for the past six months, then it’s time to go official like it’s no big deal.
To properly catch compliments at your trendy dinner party (or someone else’s), you need an equally sophisticated dessert. For the savvy baker, a seven-layer cake, cream puffs, or stone fruit pavlova will do. But for those who aren’t into baking, finding the “right” recipe means hours of searching the internet for “simple” recipes, with the search stopping at “preheat the oven.” Well, no bakers, look no further: Pannacotta is the ultimate gourmet no-bake dessert for your dinner party.
Panna cotta is inherently impressive. The mere pronunciation of its Italian name, panna cotta , will raise at least one question: “Oh, what is it?” This is your cue to dazzle your audience. Panna cotta is Italian for “cooked cream,” but it’s much more than that. The palate is supremely creamy, soft and slightly sweet, with a texture somewhere between velvety creme brulee and laid-back cake. You can even add a touch of flavor to this incredibly versatile dessert to match your food’s flavor profile.
As if all that wasn’t enough, it’s easy to make in single servings, and since panna cotta is a chilled molded dessert, you can make it up to 48 hours before eating. For those who are afraid of the oven – hold on to your hats – the best part is that roughly four ingredients cook on the stove. Frankly, even cooked is an exaggeration; they are heated on the stove, making them a great option for keeping the kitchen cool in the summer.
Panna cotta can be served simply, demonstrating the quality of the cream used. You can also add a vanilla bean or flavorings such as coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, or tea. This dessert contains a small amount of gelatin to give it enough structure to hold its shape on a plate, so when considering flavorings, make sure the liquid to gelatin ratio stays close to what the instructions say.
Try my cookie dough panna cotta recipe for a fun childhood favorite. Milk and cookies are as classic a combination as bread and butter, and this recipe is a great way to showcase the fresh, creamy taste of panna cotta with a little texture. Keep in mind that although the recipe is quick to prepare, panna cotta takes at least four hours to set.
Cookie Dough Panna Cotta (Yield: four 4-ounce servings)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups halved
- 1 ½ teaspoons Knox powdered gelatin
- 2 tablespoons demerara sugar (or dark brown sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies (I used Trader Joe’s Way More Chocolate Chips Cookies)
Crush the cookies completely. I used a small food processor, but you can use your hands. Postpone.
Prepare molds or molds by wiping them with a thin layer of tasteless oil on the inside. Just a light coverage is fine, you don’t want it to bunch up.
Pour in half into a medium saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin on half and half and let it swell for five minutes.
Whisk the mixture over medium to low heat until the gelatin dissolves and you no longer see any floating pieces of gelatin. If the mixture starts bubbling around the edges, lower the heat. You don’t want to boil the mixture. According to Fine Cooking , the heat will weaken the gelatin’s ability to gel. After about five minutes of whipping, the gelatin should dissolve.
Turn off the heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla extract into the milk mixture. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, or about two minutes.
Just before pouring the mixture into the molds, add one teaspoon of cookie crumbs. They will sink a little, which is good. Divide panna cotta mixture into prepared pans. Sprinkle another teaspoon of cookie crumbs onto four cookie cutters.
Leave in the refrigerator for four hours or overnight.
Panna cotta can be served straight from the molds or unmolded. If serving in cookie cutters, garnish with remaining cookie crumbs or whole cookies. If you want to remove the panna cotta from the pan, carefully run a sharp knife around the edges, tilting the pan towards you, which will allow gravity to gently pull the dessert down and away from your knife as you loosen the edge. Dip the mold in a shallow bowl of warm water for about 30 seconds, dry the mold and slowly invert onto a plate. Be gentle and patient, the dessert will slowly come out of shape. Garnish with cookie crumbs and serve cold.