Oldalak

Thursday, October 27, 2011

My First Encounter with Panna Cotta

Panna cotta is a dessert that I constantly mix up with crème caramel and sometimes even with crème brulée.

We were at an Italian restaurant called Vapiano and I saw the panna cotta on the menu. Since I started blogging I pay extra attention to try new dishes, desserts etc. So there was no question on what should I try this time.

Short sidetrack: Vapiano is actually a German restaurant chain, although the whole atmosphere of the restaurant, the food and every single detail screamed “I am Italian”. But it isn’t a usual restaurant. Everyone had its OWN cook (at least for 10-15 minutes). You personally talk to him/her and order your pizza or pasta and he/she prepare the meal in front of you. It was amazing. The food was amazing too. Everything was fresh and made by them. They even had a separate station where you could watch how they make the dough or how they roll it out. There are plenty of Vapiano in plenty of countries. Check it out here.

Back to my panna cotta. I loved it. It was very creamy and tasted like vanilla. Just as I imagined it would be. On the top, the red berry sauce was also not too sweet, but enough sweet to complete the creamy taste of the panna cotta.

After I came home I googled what is the difference between panna cotta, crème caramel and crème brulée. All of them are cooked puddings, but crème caramel and crème brulée are made of milk, while panna cotta is made of heavy cream. The difference between crème caramel and crème brulée is that crème caramel has a liquid caramel on the top, while crème brulée has a hard caramel coat.

There are also other famouns cooked puddings like crème catalana, which is the Spanish version of crème brulée, although they flavour it with lemon/orange instead of vanilla. There is also blancmange, in which they put some flour or starch and almonds. 

I definitely recommend to try a REAL panna cotta. I will not regret it. 

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Does this mean that if I replace heavy cream in Panna cotta recipe, with milk than I could have creme caramel or creme brulee?
    i.e. I can replace egg in creme brulee recipes with gelatin?

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    1. I think you definitely need the eggs as it contributes to the flavour. But if you try, let me know if it works. :)))

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  3. When you come to Lake Garda have to taste my Creme Caramel, also the one with the rice milk.
    It will touch the sky with a finger
    Manuela

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  4. Creme Brulee is made with cream, not milk. The difference is primarily the eggs in creme brules vs gelatin in panna cotta.

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  5. The Biggest difference is that Panna Cotta has no egg yolk as does both Creme Brulee and Flan!

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