Black forest panna cotta

You may say that I am again making a panna cotta recipe : and you are right.

Panna cotta is one of my favorite dessert. It is easy to make and can be made in advance. Moreover, it can be perfumed or composed in many many various ways.
Therefore I found that panna cotta would help to have the taste of black forest cake, but not the creamy texture which I do not like at all.
This idea to make a black forest panna cotta comes to my mind while coming back home the other day. I am working in the center of Paris and live in the suburb. Even if my workplace is not so far considering the distance from home : traffic around Paris implies most of the time to spend more than an hour in public transportation or traffic jam !
So it allows me to read, but also to elaborate recipes or ideas.

Black forest Panna cotta

The different recipes composing this dessert are noted hereunder in the order as they need to be prepared.

Chocolate panna cotta

Ingredients:

4.5 fl oz / 125 ml heavy cream (or panna which can be found in Italian delicatessen)
4.5 fl oz /125 ml milk
2 and a half gelatine leaves or 0.4 oz of agar-agar
5 gr / 0.17 oz cocoa powder
10 gr / O.35 oz black chocolate
20 g / 0.7 oz sugar

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water until soft.
Place milk, cream, cacao powder, black chocolate and sugar into a pan
and bring to simmer.
Heat until the black chocolate has melted.
Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves.
Take off the heat and add the gelatine leaves to the pan.
Stir until the gelatine leaves have dissolved.
Divide the mixture among ramekins and leave to cool.
Place into the fridge for a couple of hours, until set.

Before preparing the vanilla panna cotta, it is better to wait until the chocolate panna cotta sets. Note that if you are using agar-agar instead of gelatin leaves, the panna cotta will set faster, but the texture will be more as gelly than real panna cotta prepared with gelatin leaves.
I like both, but as for me, really panna cotta original taste is the one prepared with gelatin leaves.

Vanilla Panna cotta with cherries

Ingredients:

4.5 fl oz / 125 ml heavy cream (or panna)
4.5 fl oz /125 ml milk
2 and a half gelatine leaves or 0.4 oz of agar-agar
half vanilla bean, split lengthwise
20 g / 0.7 oz sugar
some syrup cherries

Drain the cherries.

Proceed as for the chocolate panna cotta,
but replacing cacao powder and black chocolate by the vanilla bean.

Wait until the panna cotta has cooled,
divide the mixture among ramekins to cover the chocolate panna cotta.
Put the drained cherry inside,
and leave to cool.

Place into the fridge for a couple of hours, until set.

Before preparing the cherry jelly, it is again better to wait until the vanilla panna cotta sets.

Cherry jelly

Ingredients:

80 gr / 2.8 oz syrup cherries with juice (so totally around 150 gr /5.2 oz)
10 gr / 0.3 oz sugar
1/4 teaspoon of agar agar

Make a coulis of the cherries and the juice.
Place the cherry coulis, sugar and agar agar into a pan
and bring to simmer for 2 or 3 minutes.

Leave to cool (but not too much)
and divide the coulis among ramekins in a thin layer to cover the vanilla panna cotta.
Leave to cool,
and place into the fridge for a couple of hours, until set.

Genoise chocolat

Ingredients:

3 eggs
60 gr /2 oz flour
60 gr /2 oz sugar
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 salt pinch

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Line a 15 x 10 x 1-inch roll pan with waxed paper.
Grease and flour lined pan; tap out excess.

In a bowl, using an electric mixer set on a medium speed,
beat egg yolks and sugar until fluffy.
Fold in delicately the flour and cocoa powder.

In another bowl, using clean beaters,
beat egg whites with a salt pinch until stiff.
Fold in beaten egg whites into the egg yolk and flour mixture.

Pour batter in pan; smooth top.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 12 minutes.

Leave to cool.
Cut round cake forms having the same siez than the ramekins.

Soaking syrup

In a small saucepan,
combine water and sugar,
and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer, and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves.
Remove from heat and add some cherry syrup or some kirschwasser.

Sprinkle each round cake form with the soaking syrup.
Put them on top of the ramekins as the last layer.

Place into the fridge for a couple of hours.

Before serving,
turn out delicately the black forest panna cotta on a plate.

Decorate as you like.

Violet flavor Panna Cotta

Here comes the recipe of the day deriving from the Kikilatoque's blog (here for the orginal version). Click on the above French flag for the French version.

But first let me present you a French south-west marvellous sweet coming from Toulouse : the candied violet.

Yes, I am talking about this nice little flower.

In France, we are using many type of flowers essence or candied petal for cake decoration or for their taste (i.e. rose, lavender, poppy, nasturtium...). In the past, flowers flavor were use to make medical syrup tastes better, but they were quickly used for cooking.

Today, some French chiefs are very popular for cooking flowers whether candied or fresh. I would say that in France : it is fashionable !

Since more than a century, Violet has become a real tradition and a symbol of Toulouse city (know as the "Ville rose" due to the pink color of its buildings walls) for perfume or candies.

Crystallised violets are mainly used for cake decoration. Nowadays, there are a lot of deriving sweets and syrup made from the violet flowers.

Outside France, it can be found in specialised pastry shop or on the web.

When I found this recipe on the Kikilatoque's blog : I did not hesitate to taste it, as I have always candied violet at home.

I hope you will enjoy it.

Violet flavor Panna Cotta

Ingredients :

25 cl / 9fl oz milk

25 cl / 9 fl oz double cream

3 and a half gelatine leaves

50 gr /2 oz candied violet (or you can use violet flavor : in such case add some more sugar)

20 gr / 1 oz sugar

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water until soft.

Place milk, cream, violet candied (or flavor) and sugar into a pan

and bring to simmer.

Heat until the candied violet has melted.

Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves,

Take off the heat and add the gelatine leaves to the pan.

Stir until the gelatine leaves have dissolved.

Divide the mixture among ramekins and leave to cool.

Place into the fridge for a couple of hours, until set.

Decorate with crystallised violet or violet sugar or any nice sweets or color sugar that you may have.