Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Salted Caramel Sauce Lab

This week in Kitchen Chemistry we made vanilla bean panna cotta with salted caramel sauce and candied hazelnuts! Here’s how we did it:

First, we made our panna cotta. Just to warn our fans out there, panna cotta needs to “set” in the fridge for a few hours, so I recommend you make the pudding and let it set overnight!

For the panna cotta you will need the following ingredients:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Cooking spray
• Pinch of salt

You will also need the following materials:

• Small bowl
• Four 4oz Ramekins
• Saucepan
• Thin sharp knife
• Liquid measuring cup
• Dry measuring cups and spoons
• Spoonula
• Whisk

Here is the procedure for making the vanilla bean panna cotta:

First, spray a paper towel with some cooking spray and wipe the insides of your four ramekins with the paper towel to create a light coating of cooking spray and set the ramekins aside.

Next, you will bloom the gelatin, to do this: pour the 1 cup of 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.

Set the saucepan over low heat and warm the milk gently, stirring or whisking frequently. TIP: 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.

After about two 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.

Stir the ¼ cup 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!

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk in the 1 cup of cream, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

Portion the panna cotta into the oiled ramekins. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, we made the caramel! This was the fun part, but definitely the dangerous part! So, be sure to tie back long hair, wear closed-toe shoes, wear gloves when handling the hot sugar and HAVE A BOWL OF COLD WATER JUST IN CASE! Better safe than sorry, y’all!

For the caramel you will need the following ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons sea salt, crushed

You will need the following materials:

• Hot plate/burner – This must be clean, I recommend using an SOS pad to clean!
• 2-quart saucepan – This must also be very clean!
• Instant-read kitchen thermometer
• rubber spoonula/spatula
• Pastry brush
• Whisk
• Toothpicks

Here is the procedure to make the caramel:

Over medium heat, warm the 1 ½ cream and 7 tablespoons of  unsalted butter in the 2-quart saucepan until the butter melts. Remove from heat, and carefully pour the cream/butter mixture into a glass measuring cup. Set aside. Wipe out your saucepan.

In your 2-quart saucepan, combine the 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of water.  Stir until the sugar is evenly moistened and you form a thick grainy paste.

Our sugar and water formed a thick, grainy paste! Cute!

Wipe down the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush so there are no sugar crystals above the surface of the sugar mixture. Spray a paper towel with non-stick cooking spray and wipe down the inside of the pot – above the sugar. Clip the instant-read thermometer to the side of the pan so that the heat sensor is immersed in the sugar. (Do not stir the sugar after this point)!

Place the pot with the sugar mixture over medium to medium-high heat. Let the sugar syrup come to a boil without stirring. At first, you will see small bubbles around the edge of the pan, which will eventually move inward. Around 250°F, the sugar syrup will turn transparent and boil rapidly.

Move on to the next step when the caramel is a few shades lighter than your goal color, as it will continue to cook even after you remove the heat.

BONUS: The darker the caramel, the more complex the flavor and the less sweet. Do not let the caramel get above 350 degrees or it will turn bitter!

Carefully remove the pot from the heat and gently place it on the counter. Slowly pour the hot cream (heat up in microwave if not still hot) and butter mixture into the sugar syrup while whisking the sugar syrup smoothly but quickly and thoroughly. The sugar syrup will bubble up and triple in size. Hot steam will be released. Cover your whisking hand with an oven safe glove/mitt as a precaution! Stop whisking once all the cream and butter mixture has been added.

Quickly whisk the salt into the caramel.

Pour the caramel into your glass measuring cup to cool. Allow the caramel to cool until almost room temperature.

Next, we made the caramel covered hazelnuts!

Here are the ingredients for the hazelnuts:

• Whole hazelnuts, toasted and peeled
• 3 tablespoons water
• 4 ½ tablespoon sugar
• 1 pinch salt

Here is how you make them:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread your shelled hazelnuts on a cookie sheet in a single layer, place on a rack in the middle of the  preheated oven

Let the nuts roast for about 12 minutes, then check on them. If they smell nutty and are lightly browned then they’re done. If they’re not, keep checking on them every minute or so. They can go from toasted to burned very quickly.

Insert a toothpick into each roasted hazelnut after they are done in the oven.

Melt the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Let the sugar syrup come to a boil without stirring. At first, you will see small bubbles around the edge of the pan, which will eventually move inward. Around 250°F, the sugar syrup will turn transparent and boil rapidly. – We would have a picture of this step, but OURS BURNED! It got so hot so fast that it turned dark before our thermometer said 250 degrees, we believe that out thermometer did not give us an accurate measurement, the betrayal!

Having said this, the next few stops were a little wonky! Our caramel was very dark and bitter and it was not adhering that well to our nuts, but here is the following steps anyway, so you can try it at home and be better!

When the caramel is the color you desire, remove from the heat. Allow it to cool for up to 60 seconds before proceeding. The cooler caramel will be slightly thicker and will form more dramatic drips.

Dip each hazelnut in the caramel by holding the toothpick. Use sticky tack to immobilize the toothpick over the sink, allowing the dripping caramel to form an “icicle”. Place a paper towel under the dripping caramel to make clean up easier. If your caramel is too liquidy to “drip” well, then let it cool a bit more.

Allow the coated hazelnuts to cool completely.

Now, you must unmold your panna cotta! This sounds daunting, but trust me, if I can do it, so can you!

Here is an easy way to unmold your beautiful panna cottas:

Fill a bowl half way with very warm water.

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.

Invert the ramekin over a plate and shake gently to help the panna cotta fall out, or press gently on one side to help nudge it out.

 

Top the delicious panna cotta with the caramel sauce and the hazelnuts and serve!

 

Some burning questions from our fans:

Why is the darker caramel, less sweet?

Darker caramel is less sweet because the sugar molecules are beginning to break down. Dark caramel, aka baker’s caramel, can be used as coloring however.

At what temperature did YOU see caramelization chemistry occurring? How did you know?

Caramelization chemistry differed for us between the first and second batch. In the first batch that became the sauce, we found that the chemistry occurred in line with the instructions: at 250 degrees, the sugar became transparent and bubbled rapidly, and at 320, it became a beautiful light brown that made sweet caramel!

Batch 2, used to coat the hazelnuts began burning at 260 degrees, when it was supposed to be transparent! This produced a dark, bitter, and slightly pungent caramel that was not sweet whatsoever.

Here is our panna cotta reaction video! The password to view it is pannacohen

Thanks for following our journey with us! We’ll see  you next week for another episode of Nonna Brooke and Katrina’s Kitchen! Ciao!