Ann Reardon

Vanilla Panna Cotta Dessert Recipe

ice drop dessert ann reardon

Have you ever seen such a pretty dessert. Sitting inside it’s very own ice droplet is a vanilla bean panna cotta, diced compressed pineapple, mango lime sphere, isomalt sugar garnish.

Thanks to the support of YouTube and Screen Australia I had the opportunity to work with a team on this video. Normally I film, produce, photograph and edit everything myself. But for this video there was a producer and 2 camera men. I chose to fly to Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to introduce you to Mike Belcher an amazing chef whose desserts I admire.

ann reardon how to cook that

Ice Sculpture
balloon ice sculpture

Fill balloon to desired size, release air bubble from the top, tie and hang in freezer with a plate underneath. Wait until a shell is frozen. Use a blow torch in the centre of the ice sculpture to make a hole. Then release the water and continue to use the blow torch to make the hole bigger.
Return it to the freezer until its time to serve.

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

300millilitres (10.14 fluid ounces) or 1 cup plus 3 Tbsp and 1 tsp Milk 4% fat
300g (10.58 ounces) or 1 1/4 cup Cream 35% fat
1 Vanilla bean (or vanilla extract if you can’t get vanilla bean)
60g (2.12 ounces) or 1/4 cup plus 1 tsp Sugar
6g (0.21 ounces) or 3 leaves gold strength leaf gelatin OR 6g (0.21 ounces) or 1 3/4 tsp powdered gelatine softened with 50millilitres (1.69 fluid ounces) or 1/4 cup of the milk

vanilla bean panna cotta recipe

Hydrate the gelatine leaves in cold water for 10 minutes until fully softened.
Bring milk, sugar and vanilla to a simmer, remove from the heat and add the squeezed gelatine.
Leave for the flavor to infuse for 20 minutes, drain the vanilla bean and add the cream. If you want the vanilla seeds to be evenly dispersed chill until just starting to thicken and then pour into glasses. If using extract you can pour into glasses immediately.

Compressed Pineapple
200g (7.05 ounces) Super sweet tinned pineapple, finely diced
1 star anise
vanilla bean left over from panna cotta
sugar to taste
heatproof food safe plastic bag


vanilla panna cotta ann reardon

Place all ingredients into a vac pac bag (or watertight plastic bag) and fully compress.
Heat for 30 minutes in a water bath of 60C (140 degrees Fahrenheit).

Mango lime sphere
400g (14.11 ounces) tinned Mango, pureed
50millilitres (1.69 fluid ounces) or 3 Tbsp and 1 tsp Lime juice
60g (2.12 ounces) or 1/4 cup plus 1 tsp Sugar
6g (0.21 ounces) Calcium lactate gluconate (you can get a kit that has the alginate and calcium salts here).

Sodium alginate bath:
1Litre Distilled water
5g (0.18 ounces) Sodium alginate
mango spherical recipe molecular gastronomy

Combine mango and lime together, then add the combined sugar and calcium lactate gluconate. Pour into hemisphere molds and freeze until solid.

Make your sodium alginate bath and drop in the frozen spheres. Keep the spheres moving making sure they do not touch. After 3 minutes remove the spheres and drop them into cold water to stop the setting process.

Isomalt garnish

100g (3.53 ounces) Isomalt (available here)
Cookie cutter slightly larger than the glass the Panacotta is in
2 silpat baking mats
isomalt disc how to cook that
Heat in the oven for 3 minutes at 180C (356 degrees Fahrenheit)

Optional garnish with micro herbs, lemon balm and micro mint, gold leaf and edible flowers.
Make sure the gold leaf you buy is edible like this one not one that says it is for craft.

gold leaf on dessert reardon

by Ann Reardon
Copyright © 2016 Reardon Media Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

67 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    Realmente muy inspirador. Gracias por compartir.

  2. Rating: 5

    Wonderful dish I have ever seen…?
    I want substitute for calcuim lactate gluconate..

  3. Rating: 3

    Hi can I use vanilla extract instead of the vanilla bean?

  4. Rating: 3

    what is the yield for this recipe

  5. Rating: 3.5

    Hi there,
    Love your recipes – thanks so much. I’m struggling with the isomalt. How long do you leave them in the oven at 180? many thanks

    • Hi Paul,
      It is just 3 minutes in the oven.

    • Hi
      I m also sufferig with the isomalt thuiles , what is exactly the process ? How many grams in each thuile ?
      180 c i ve made Some but not Nice and a lot oa failure

      • Hi Karel, Are you using the two silpats? They help create even heat because they have a fibreglass mesh covered in silicone. Also check the baking tray is a flat tray (not one with an air pocket in it).

        • Hi Ann thanks for your answer , i m using two silicone mats and a flat tray . How many grams of isomalt do you use for 1 isomalt disc ? Also i feel that 3 min is a little to little ? Its 180 C Celsius ?

          • Hi Karel, at 7:13 in the video it shows what it should look like, it is pretty much sprinkled until it is just covered and you can’t see the mat anymore. Yes it is 180 degrees celcius. If you think it is too little (it is possible that their oven thermostat was running slightly hotter or cooler than yours). then I’d suggest doing as in the video then adding one more circle on top of the top silicone mat, in a spot that you don’t have any underneath. So then you can see when it is completely clear and just starting to bubble.

          • Rating: 5

            Hey Ann
            Thank you and keep doing your wonderful cooking

  6. How many ounces are each of the molds? Also where can I find those glasses the panna cotta is in?

    • Hi Ssuan, the glasses are double walled espresso shot glasses. Sizes vary. We recommend 150ml to 250ml. The hemisphere molds are call mini hemisphere molds. I am unsure of the size exactly as this was a commercial mold but I am guessing it would be around. Here is something similar: http://store.molecularrecipes.com/silicone-hemisphere-mold/

  7. Rating: 4.5

    Wonderful. I have no words.

  8. Rating: 4

    Hi I’m Levin, i wonder this recipes can make how much of this panna cotta ? Thanks 😀

    • Hi Levin Lim, It should make at least 6 serves.

  9. Rating: 4

    Hi Ann,
    What’s 4% milk in Australia. I would love to try to this recipie!

    • Hi Sam, Just use full cream milk.

  10. Hi I’m in love with your recipes. Thank you
    I’m from Chicago.
    Do you know a place or e-mail address when I can buy some molds?
    I’m looking for sodium alginate.
    Thank you
    Catalina

    • Hi Catalina, ebay or amazon have options or look online for a baking store near you.

  11. the panna cotta is described wrong, ubring cream and sugar to simmer, not milk

    • That may be your way of doing it. Neither is wrong, they are just different.

  12. Rating: 4.5

    Made mine today as my summative assessments at my cooking school. But instead of panna cotta i made a creme brulee topped with poach naartjie, roasted pistachios and a pineapple flower

    • Looks delicious Ashley!

    • Hi Ashley, please can I ask where you get the Calcium Lactate Gluconate, Sodium Alginate and Isomalt from?
      I reside in Gauteng.

      Thank you

      • Hi Koushika, Ann has provided a link to an online supplier in the recipe above,

    • Rating: 4.5

      That’s amazing. I can’t wait to try this – how long did you freeze to get just the shell frozen?

  13. Rating: 4.5

    The recipie looks so complicated and yet its so simple i love that definatly going to make these soon

  14. Rating: 4

    Hi and thank you for your explanations. the most difficult part for me was the isomalt. But I made it. Thank you

    Pascal

    • Well done Pascal!

Leave a Reply to Matt Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*

ADD JPEG TO YOUR COMMENT