I’m still playing around with easy but drop-dead gorgeous desserts I can make over the holidays. I made this while my younger daughter Alex, home from school with a bad cold, hovered impatiently waiting for the gelatin to set. I told her to take a hot shower and the panna cotta would be ready by the time she was done. That’s how fast this thing takes to prepare. And it doesn’t take much longer for it to set. Patience is recommended, however, as the panna cotta is best served after chilling in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
This recipe makes four servings.
Ingredients
- 1 90-g. pack of almond flavored gelatin
1 90-g. pack of unflavored (but not unsweetened) clear gelatin
1-1/2 tbsps. of good quality instant coffee (I used Nescafe Gold)
2 oz. of good quality baking chocolate (I used Van Houten)
400 ml. of milk mixed with 400 ml. of cream
Instructions
- Pour the contents of both packets of gelatin into a bowl. Stir. Divide the mixture into three equal portions. Each portion will be about 1/4 cup minus a tablespoonful.Divide the milk-cream mixture into three portions as well.
In a small pan, mix together one portion of gelatin, the coffee and one portion of the milk-cream mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the gelatin and coffee are completely dissolved without allowing the mixture to boil.
Pour the coffee panna cotta into one-cup molds. Allow to set, about five minutes.
Next, take another portion of gelatin and, in a pan, mix it with a second portion of the milk-cream mixture. Add the chocolate which I recommend that you chop or cut into small pieces. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the chocolate is melted and the gelatin is dissolved. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
Pour the chocolate panna cotta on top of the coffee panna cotta and allow to set for another five minutes.
Finally, cook the last remaining portion of gelatin in the last portion of the milk-cream mixture, stirring until the gelatin is dissolved, and without allowing the mixture to boil. Pour over the chocolate panna cotta and allow to set. I recommend chilling.
To serve, you can top the panna cotta with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream. Or, drizzle caramel syrup over the panna cotta, sprinkle with grated or shaved chocolate and enjoy.
Cooking time (duration):30 minutes
Number of servings (yield): 4
Looks great and yummy! Can I ask if you use agar gelatin or cellulose gelatin? Thanks!
I used gelatin. In a box.
Agar-agar, although gelatinous, is strictly speaking not gelatin.
that reminds me so much of my childhood in manila! i’m feelin’ a little nostalgic!
p.s. this is my first time visiting your site via PC. normally i view your site through my iPhone, and let me just say that the iPhone version doesn’t do your site justice. beautiful layout & photographs!
@boogie, scroll down and turn the ‘mobile theme’ off at the bottom of the web page. Homecooking rocks in iphone
Yummy!
Yummmmy! A variation to our usual black sambo at home (similar without the coffee layer) Will definitely give this a try. Looks like a light dessert to have after a dinner invovling grilled bulalo… thank you thank you. keep ‘em coming please
That looks good! Btw, I tried your fish nuggets, my family loves it. Thank you so much for sharing the recipes. Your my savior when it comes to cooking, hehe.
Wow!it looks really good! i will definitely try this one! yum!
Yum! And so easy too! Thanks again Connie
Ms. Connie what cream will I use?
All purpose cream.
Connie,
We are trying to make this with knox gelatine and we used 180 grams (90 grams for the almond and 90 grams for the unflavored) and it is like a rock. We wanted to check with you to make sure that this is correct? We were thinking that 1 knox gelatine envelope (which equals 7.2 grams) would work per layer.. can you or anyone, please help us with this question?
Thanks,
Mary
I use Alsa. I find it hard to control the texture of Knox.
Connie, I have never heard of Alsa. Can you tell me where to buy this? Is it in packets or how is it sold?
Thanks again for your help. We were making this for a gourmet club dinner.
Mary
Hi Mary. In boxes. It’s made by Lady’s Choice, I think.
Connie,
Forgive me if I sound dumb, but do you get this in your grocery store? Where do you buy it?
Thanks
Yes, it’s one of the most widely available brands of powdered gelatin.
Wait… may I know your location?
I am in the Wilmington – Newark Delaware area. I have never heard of this and I have called to of the local asian stores and they both said they didn’t have it. Any help would be appreciated.
Ooohhh, I see. Well, I can’t recommend any other brand as it’s the only one I use. You might want to tweak the amount of liquid if you’re using Knox.
Connie, One more question then. If I am using knox do I add more liquid or take away? You mentioned tweaking the amount of liquid. I don’t usually use gelatin and this would be the first time.
Thanks
Well since I never tried using Knox for this particular recipe, I really can’t make a guess.
yummy….. Thank’s for sharing this recipe…
looks really yummy… i just love panna cotta! used to make vanilla panna cotta with mango puree as sauce.
Hi Connie,
I made some modification on your recipe when I made it today following your mantra that a missing ingredient or two should not stop someone from cooking, or in this case making a chocolate and coffee pannacotta.
Didn’t have any almond flavored gelatin so I used 2 packs of clear unflavored sweetened gelatin instead and used 1T of vanilla as flavoring for the white layer.
Instead of chocolate bar I used 2T of chocolate powder instead.
It didn’t stay long in the fridge to cool. I know I have a hit come Christmas! Thanks.
Hi Ms. Connie,
May I ask what kind of milk you used?
Alaska skim milk.
I’ve tried this for Christmas and my family loved it! It was very easy to make. Thanks!
HeLLo. Just want to ask if the gelatin is a powder or cooked gelatin?
Thanks!
Powder, of course. If you cook already cooked gelatin in more liquid, it’ll be very, very soggy when it sets.
how many servings can this recipe yield?
oopppsssss! i miss that part. its there n pala. “This recipe makes four servings.” hehehe!
How if I only have a clear unflavored and unsweetened gelatin?Should I add sugar in it?
Yes.
I made this yesterday and here are my observations: 1) My coffee layer was darker than the chocolate layer. It tasted a bit strong too. I’ll probably cut the coffee to just 1 tbs instead of 1.5. 2) The almond layer didn’t solidify. This is probably my fault because I was already impatient and didn’t wait until all the powder was dissolved in the milk. 3) I didn’t have molds so I used plain old mugs to hold the panna cotta.
After all that though, it came out very delicious! Thanks for sharing Connie!
ms connie, where did you buy this kind of glass ramekins?
thank you.
It’s part of a set. Anchor Hocking. My husband gave them to me.
Mahirap ata maghanap ng ganitong brand sa department store.:-)Wala pa kasi akong nakikitang ganitong brand. I’ll check the leading dept stores.
Thank you Ms Connie.
It’s widely available.
WOW!!! That is fabulous!
these colours are so delicious!
This is really good for this Christmas!
Thanks, Ms. Connie, for sharing…
miss connie i was wondering ano po ang peferred brand ninyo sa gelatin?
Alsa.
thank you po miss connie, i was able to make a decent panna cotta, hindi malabsa at hindi rin matigas..
but wala akong nakitang almond flavored sa shopwise, still following your mantra “the absence of one or 2 ingredients should not stop one from cooking”:) i opted to use manngo because it’s in season.. it was a nervous experiment sayang kasi if hindi nag work.. but it did.. naka 2 batch na ako.. needless to say my fiance’ liked it. sobrang thank you
That’s it! Never be afraid to substitute and experiment. Congrats!
hey i tried but i used gelatine powder can you tell me exactly wht the substitue variation is for the powdered gelatin and 5 minutes interval wasn’t enough as they all got mixed up>> ur picture and the recipe instruction is beautiful. hope i get it right after ur advise
I used powdered gelatin. See the second photo.
If 5 minutes weren’t enough, you make adjustments. Your room temperature is not necessarily the same as mine when I made my dessert.
Hi.I’m making this or the pandan-flavored ones tomorrow.I hope it turns out fine as I plan to make these for the husband’s birthday on the 18th.I plan to use either mango or ube.Thanks for the recipe.
hi Ms. Connie,
I love panna cotta! Actually, it’s a new-found love. I didn’t care much for it before until I saw an episode of junior masterchef australia with panna cotta as one of their recipes. It was very easy to make so tried making my own. I was smitten! Of course, I had to search panna cotta in your site since I know that you would have your own version. Here it is indeed! I had most of the ingredients (nescafe classic instead of gold for me) so I didn’t waste time in making this dessert. Yummy!!!
A question, though : the layers of my panna cotta separated when unmolded to a platter. We just ate ours straight from the molds. Would you know why this is so?
Thanks, Ms. Connie!
Try pouring the second layer when the first firm on top but still soft inside, and so on.
hi ms connie!i’m planning to make this for noche buena..bought alsa unsweetened clear but the almond jelly isn’t available in our place.there is no available one so instead i bought another box of unsweetened clear and almond extract to at least mimic the almond jelly in the recipe.do you think that would be okay?i hope it would work.also, i am planning to make this tomorrow and just put it the ref and put it out during the noche buena. do you think it would hold up til that time?would its texture and taste not be affected?i will appreciate your ideas.thank you so much!merry christmas!
@farrah Re unflavored gelatin and almond extract: Yes, that will work. Brilliant idea, in fact.
And, yes, you can prepare it two days ahead. But wrap in cling film before putting in the fridge. Unmold just before serving.