Chocolate Panna Cotta

Chocolate Panna Cotta
Original recipe by Williams-Sonoma

What is Panna Cotta?
 
Panna cotta (from Italian cooked cream) is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. It is generally from the Northern Italian region of Piedmont, although it is eaten all over Italy, where it is served with wild berries, caramel, chocolate sauce or fruit coulis. It is not known exactly how or when this dessert came to be, but some theories suggest that cream, for which mountainous Northern Italy is famous, was historically eaten plain or sweetened with fruit or hazelnuts. (Definition from Wikipedia)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
2 ounce semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Chocolate Ganache Topping

2 ounce semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:

Coat four 5-ounce ramekins lightly with flavorless oil.

Pour 1/4 cup of the cream into a small bowl, and sprinkle the gelatin over it and let stand until softened, about 10 minutes.  Place the bowl in a larger bowl of hot water and stir until the gelatin has dissolved.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, bring the remaining heavy cream, sugar, and salt just to a boil.  Remove the pan from the heat, and add the chocolate and whisk until smooth.

Add the gelatin mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir until well blended.  Pour, dividing mixture evenly among the ramekins and let cool at room temperature.

Cover the panna cotta loosely and refrigerate until set and thoroughly chilled, at least 6 hours or up to 1 day.

To serve, dip the ramekins one at a time into a bowl of hot water for about 5 seconds, then run a table knife around the edges of the ramekins and invert onto a chilled serving plate.

Chocolate Ganache Topping

In a saucepan, melt the chocolate pieces and heavy cream together.  Before drizzling chocolate ganache over panna cotta, cut strawberries lengthwise and place around panna cotta.  Once chocolate ganache is melted, drizzle over chocolate panna cotta.

Serves 4