I love how simplistic a panna cotta is. Cream, sugar, gelatin, that’s all you need and you can make a rather fancy Italian dessert. My first panna cotta memory was in college, when I was inspired by a lot of the delicious Italian desserts in the North End in Boston. Thanks to the internet(and chef Josef Centeno), I was taught the best panna cotta ratio, which is 3/4 tsp gelatin, 1 cup heavy cream, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. A bad panna cotta is either a sweet cream soup, or rubbery cream that you can bounce off the wall like a super ball. That 3/4 tsp gelatin to 1 cup cream ratio results in the cream being set to the point of being able to wobble, but still also have a soft, silky texture when you cut into it. Having a 4 to 1 ratio of cream to sugar makes the panna cotta have the appropriate amount of sweetness to classify it as a dessert. I feel like gelatin-based desserts get a weird stigma all the time and in truth, when I think of the concept of panna cotta, it sounds like creamy jello. However, tasting it, and experiencing that almost magical melt-in-the-mouth texture, it keeps me from being a panna cotta nay-sayer each and every time.

Since I was coming up with blue and white desserts for my blue and white tea tower, panna cotta was sort of put on my radar. Specifically, I wanted there to be a verrine, or a glass dessert(a dessert served in a clear glass, not a dessert made out of glass that is very much inedible!). Panna cotta made the most sense for that, since it is really easy and fun to make, and it gives me a little more time to focus on the other components of all of the other desserts, while still being a solid part of that dessert ensemble. Usually with panna cotta, the one struggle is infusing the cream with a flavor. In this case, I used tonka bean in mine. Tonka beans taste like a combination of vanilla, cherry, and almond, giving these panna cotta a really sophisticated flavor profile. I’m pairing them with an elderflower gelee, which I’m dying blue just to keep the color scheme in line with the dessert tower, since the elderflower adds a pleasant, lychee-like fragrance, which contrasts the almond-vanilla-cherry flavor in the tonka, that makes these panna cotta taste both nostalgic and new.

For the panna cotta:
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp gelatin powder + 2 tbsp cold water
1g grated tonka bean

In a pot, melt everything together on low heat until all of the gelatin and sugar have been dissolved into the cream. Pour the liquid amongst three small glasses and transfer to the refrigerator. Allow the panna cotta to set for at least 1 hour before attempting to add on the gelee.

For the blue elderflower gelee:
1/2 cup water
1oz elderflower liquor
1g blue spirulina powder
1 tsp agar agar
a pinch of salt

In a pot, melt down everything over medium heat. Allow the gelee to cool down slightly, but still keeping it in liquid form, before pouring over the panna cotta in the three glasses. Transfer to the refrigerator for another 10 minutes before attempting to serve.