February 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge: Panna Cotta with Orange Gelée and Nestle Florentine Cookies

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Well, this month I managed somehow to complete the challenge just in time. It's not like I'm gonna start complaining about my job now (yes, it is XD), but these past weeks have been hell for me and the pleople I'm working with in my current project. There are just too many last-minute-super-urgent-changes to be able to cope with and finish in time.

While preparing for this month's challenge I had to face some problems regarding the ingredients needed for the florentine's cookies: as far as I'm aware you can't find in any regular (spanish) supermarket neither dark (or light) corn syrup or quick oats. And I didn't had time to go browsing specialized stores in search for some ingredients that I'm not likely to use again in a loooong time. So I substituted the dark corn syrup with honey and the quick oats with all-bran cereals :-)

As for the fruit gelée, I chosed an orange gelée because I had some at home and I think that the orange flavour is a great counterpart to the honey-ish flavour of the panna cotta.

Here come the recipes I used:

Ingredients for the Orange Gelée:

1 big orange
60g granulated sugar
45ml water
1 and 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin

Method for the Orange Gelée:

1. Sprinkle gelatin over water.
2. Peel the orange and cut it in small pieces. Place the orange and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer until sugar has dissolved.
3. Now mix the gelatin into the orange mixture and stir until gelatin has dissolved.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool (close to room temp). Put it in the bottom of a glass (or reserve for layering it into or above the Panna Cotta).

Ingredients for the Panna Cotta (I made half of the recipe):

120ml whole milk
1/2 tablespoon unflavored powdered gelatin
A pinch of salt
360ml whipping cream
40ml honey
1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Method for the Panna Cotta:

1. Pour the milk into a pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the pot is cold by placing it in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
2. Place the pot over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
3. Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into a glass.
5. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Ingredients for the Florentine Cookies (this is my adaptation):

100g unsalted butter
160g all-bran cereals
150g granulated sugar
95g all purpose flour
60ml honey
60ml whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A pinch of salt

Method for the Florentine Cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Prepare the baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat..
3. To the melted butter add the all-bran, sugar, flour, honey, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.
4. Drop a tablespoon full, 75mm apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are set. Cool completely on the baking sheets.

I'm happy with the Panna Cotta even though it didn't set completely, but still it had some consistency, which is not that bad taking into account that this was my first attempt! ^^

The florentine cookies were a nice surprise despite all the things that could have go wrong! Looks like my substitutions didn't mess anything up. On the contrary, they're delicious! Really crunchy and with a nice honey scent that matches with the Panna Cotta ^o^