A light and elegant Valentine’s Day dessert!

For Valentine’s Day, we decided to fire up the pizza oven and make a couple of our favorite pizza’s to serve along with a citrus salad. Our guests brought a beautiful cheese plate and yummy orzo salad to accompany our meal.  I knew that would be a lot of food so I needed to make something light and of course, elegant, for our Valentine’s Day dessert.  In trying to come up with an item that would finish our dinner with something sweet, yet not too heavy, I combined three elements to create a light and elegant Valentine’s Day Dessert.  I wanted it to have the look of Valentine’s Day so I used something white, red and of course added a touch of chocolate!

The dessert I made was Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta topped with Strawberry Preserves w/ Black Pepper & Balsamic Vinegar, garnished with Dark Chocolate Curls.  The Panna Cotta recipe was from one of my favorite blogsites;  The Kitchn.  It is a simple recipe and uses few ingredients with very few steps.  I found the biggest task to overcome was in un-molding it, however after a few tries I came up with the best process.  It required the water to be more hot than warm so that I shook it less and it eased out all in one piece.  Best to try 3 seconds first and then 2 at a time until it is loose enough to release and so that you don’t melt it before plating it.  The best tip was about lightly wetting the dessert plate so that you could maneuver the panna cotta around once it was on the plate.  That was ingenious!  I took the author’s advice and used half & half instead of milk & heavy cream.  Rather than using vanilla extract, I used a vanilla bean for richer flavor and added the seeds and whole bean to the sugar melting process.  I used half of a vanilla bean, but next time I would use a whole bean for extra vanilla flavor.

How To Make Panna Cotta

Makes 6 4-ounce puddings

What You Need

Ingredients

Equipment

Six 6-ounce ramekins
Paper towels
2-quart saucepan
Whisk
Large bowl
Thin knife

Instructions

1. Lightly grease the ramekins: Spray the ramekins with cooking spray, then use a paper towel to wipe out most of the oil, leaving only a light residue.
2. Bloom the gelatin: Pour the milk into the saucepan and sprinkle the powdered gelatin evenly over top. Let soften for 5 minutes or until the surface of the milk is wrinkled and the gelatin grains look wet and slightly dissolved.
3. Dissolve the gelatin over low heat: Set the saucepan over low heat and warm the milk gently, stirring or whisking frequently. The milk should never boil or simmer; if you see steam remove the pot from the stove and let it cool down. The milk should get hot, but not so hot that you can’t leave your finger in the pot for a few seconds. The gelatin will dissolve quickly as the milk warms; it melts at body temperature so this step should go quickly.
4. Check to make sure the gelatin is dissolved: After about 2 minutes of warming, rub a bit of the milk between your fingers to make sure it’s smooth. Or dip a spoon in the milk and check the back for distinct grains of gelatin.
5. Dissolve the sugar: Stir the sugar into the milk and continue warming until it dissolves as well. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes total to dissolve both the gelatin and sugar. Again, never let the mixture boil.
6. Whisk in the cream and flavorings: Remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk in the cream, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.
7. Pour into the ramekins and chill: Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared ramekins and put in the refrigerator to chill. If serving straight from the cups, without unmolding, chill for 1 to 2 hours. If you want to unmold the panna cotta, chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
8. Prepare to unmold: Fill a large bowl partway with warm to hot water. Wipe a dessert plate with a damp paper towel (a damp plate lets you reposition the panna cotta more easily if it doesn’t fall in the right spot).
9. Release the panna cotta edge from the cup: Run a thin knife carefully around the sides of a ramekin. Don’t slide the knife all the way into the cup; just release the top edge of the pudding from the edge of the cup. Dip the ramekin in the warm water up to its rim, and hold it there for about 3 seconds.
10. Unmold on a plate: Invert the ramekin over the plate and shake gently to help the panna cotta fall out, or press gently on one side to help nudge it out. It should fall out on the plate easily. (If it does not, return to the warm water bath in increments of 2 seconds.) Reposition on the plate if desired. Serve immediately, or refrigerate, lightly covered, for up to 5 days. The gelatin gets stronger as it sits, so this will be a bit rubbery by days 4 or 5, but you can mitigate this by letting the panna cotta sit at room temperature for about half an hour before serving.

To top the Panna Cotta I used one of my favorite recipes for Strawberry Preserves with Black Pepper and Balsamic Vinegar from Epicurious.  I have served it over pound cake, ice cream, cheese, pancakes and many other items.  It always steals the show with rave reviews and is simple to make.  Fortunately I had made some ahead and frozen it in jars so that all I had to do this time was thaw it out!

ingredients

• 2 cups strawberries (about 1 pint), trimmed and quartered
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

When I first tried to make chocolate curls, I had refrigerated the chocolate and all that I got were tiny slivers.  I then started researching ways to make actual curls online.  Next I tried the, “let it soften at room temperature for an hour and use a peeler to make curls” process.  It just gave me larger slivers, so I went back to the drawing board.  I decided to use a process written by The Pioneer Woman Cooks blog,  and it finally worked!  I found that I made the chocolate a little too thick in spots on the pan so some of my curls, didn’t actually curl but came off in large strips.  I can see how you can manipulate the temperature of the chocolate and the thickness of your spread on the pan to get different results.  All in all though, it was a simple process that only took a few minutes and worked! 

This may seem like a daunting task, making three items to create one dessert.  However each individual recipe was simple and quick to do.  Everything can be prepared ahead and assembled at the last minute before serving.  There are also many ways to vary the base recipe to alter it for any seasonal ingredients or style of fare.  The possibilities are endless!