One of the things I wanted to do this year was to make certain desserts from scratch. One was New York Baked Cheesecake (I’ve made this twice now, it was so delicious), another is profiteroles (which I haven’t managed yet), and the third, after watching many episodes of Masterchef, was pannacotta.
Greg and John (from Masterchef, this is) always wince whenever anyone says they’re making pannacotta. This is mostly down to the cooling/timing issue – contestants invariably present them with a half-set puddle.
I, however, had the luxury of time. I bastardised two Jamie Oliver recipes, making the pannacotta from this one and the sauce from this one due to a lack of rhubarb in the local supermarket.
I hadn’t bought vanilla pods before – they are probably more expensive, weight-for-weight, than gold. They also smell ridiculously rich when you’re running a knife down them (just like Masterchef, see?), sickly really. They make the mixture look very professional though, all those brown bits floating in it.
For lack of appropriate pannacotta pots (is that a thing?), I set them in glasses. Which was fine, right up to the point of extraction.
I ran hot water in short bursts over the glasses that I’d just got out of the fridge and prayed to Ikea that they wouldn’t crack.
They didn’t. Phew.
They did start melting before they hit the plate, though, and the bottom of the dessert (which then became the top) had the thickest part of the glass protecting it, so it wasn’t as smooth as I’d have liked.
I’d use the same recipe again, but only when rhubarb is available again. Serving it with a rich chocolate sauce made the whole thing rich and sickly, and I think the rhubarb would have been a perfect foil to that, to add a little bite.
Now I’m off to Google profiterole recipes…