Chocolate Panna Cotta

Today is going to be a really exciting day for Anushka. She has a school picnic and will be taking the Bart to a park with all her classmates. I know she is going to be so happy and excited, she just loves the 'choo choo train'. With all this excitement I couldn't sleep and was up so early, its just 7.00 and I'm done with all my work. A good one hour before Anushka wakes up and just enough time to finish this post.

I borrowed this amazing all chocolate book from the library last week and have been drooling at the pictures and reading about chocolate every free minute. Yesterday I got super tempted and got all the ingredients ready for a chocolate mousse. But over whipped cream happened and I had to drop the plan. Then I remembered this recipe that I had bookmarked a couple of days before that called for just the amount of cream I had left.

The panna cotta is super chocolaty and makes an amazing quick dessert. What I loved about it is that it uses whole milk instead of cream and it has pure chocolate flavor, so use the best one that you can get. The original recipe does not call for any additional sugar but I thought it needed some more and the amount of gelatin can definitely be reduced. I have made the changes below to the recipe that I adapted from here.

Chocolate Panna Cotta

Ingredients:

3/4 cups whole milk

2 tbs sugar

1tsp vanilla extact

pinch of salt

1 1/4 tsps powdered unflavored gelatin

2 tbs water for the gelatin

4.5 oz dark chocolate (I used semi-sweet)

2 tbs cream

Method:

Take the water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin evenly over it. Let stand for about 5 mins until softened. Melt the gelatin in the microwave or over a double boiler.

Heat the milk and sugar and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.

Stir in the melted gelatin and salt. 

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler making sure no water or steam mixes with the chocolate. Strain and pour the hot milk mixture over the chocolate. Add the vanilla and carefully emulsify with a hand blender (I added the milk in three batches and just mixed it really well with a spatula). Add the cream and stir just to incorporate. 

Let cool to room temperature and pour into 4 small serving glasses and refrigerate for atleast 4 hours.

Coffee Mascarpone Cream Cake

A Very Happy New Year to all my readers. Here's hoping for a Bright, Prosperous and Happy 2013. The last few weeks of the last year were all fun, we had a wonderful holiday and spent a lot of time with friends. 

I hardly had any time for blogging but I did not want to miss posting on the first day of the new year.

Last night one of my friends bought a Tiramisu cake for our new year party, I was so thrilled to see it and it was just fabulous. 

I had made a tiramisu cake a while back and I loved the coffee, mascarpone and chocolate combination. This cake has very similar flavors, but there is no liquor and it is much lighter because of the fatless sponge. 

Coffee Mascarpone Cream Cake

Ingredients:

Coffee Sponge:

4 eggs, at room temperature

4 tbs sugar

1 tbs instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 tbs water

8 tbs flour

Soaking syrup:

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

Mascarpone cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

4 oz mascarpone cheese

3-4 tbs powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 tbs water

Method:

Coffee Sponge:

Preheat oven to 390F/ 200C.

Line the bottom of two 8"pans with parchment paper.

Take the eg gs, sugar, coffee paste and sugar in a large bowl and beat on high speed for 10 minutes.

Very gently fold in the flour in two batches until well combined without deflating the mixture.

Divide the batter among the two pans and level the top.

Bake for 18 -20 minutes until done. Cool in the pan on wire racks.

Soaking syrup:

Heat the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves completely. Keep aside to cool.

Mascarpone Cream:

Chill the bowl and beaters and the cream well. Take the cream and sugar in the chilled bowl and whip to almost stiff peaks. Whip the mascarpone and coffee mixture for a minute to lighten the mascarpone and then gently stir in about a fourth of the whipped cream. Fold in the remaining whipped cream gently.

To assemble the cake:

Slide a knife along the edge of the pan to release the cake and peel off the parchment paper. 

Brush sugar syrup evenly all over one of the cakes to moisten it well. Place it on a plate or cake server.

Top with a little less than a third of the mascarpone cream mixture.

Moisten the other cake layer and place it over the first one.

Frost the sides and top of the cake with the remaining frosting and decorate as desired.

Refrigerate covered for a few hours before serving.