Panna Cotta and Florentines: a Daring Baker Adventure

After missing last month’s DB challenge, I’m back with two!

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

I’ve never made Panna Cotta or Florentine cookies, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. And I thought that out of two recipes, at least I should be able to eat one. Only fair, right?

I ended up making a sunshine Panna Cotta, using very rich cashew milk and agave rather than the traditional milk and cream and sugar. I went hunting for some fresh fruit that would work, although winter is just not a great time for that and I was burnt out on raspberries because of this chocolate raspberry pie. So I settled on nectarines, which were decent but not great. (hey, it’s Feb, what do we expect???)

Since I was off to a family get together, I figured a large one would work infinitely better than a tiny one, and I was right! And since one of my cousins was going Paleo, it worked well because there was something she could eat (not sure about the agave, but most of it fit)

The recipe was along these lines:

2.5 cups water, divided
1 2/3 cups of cashews, soaked overnight
1/2 cup agave
1/2 tsp vanilla
packet unflavored gelatin (about 2.5 tsp)

4 ripe nectarines or whatever fruit strikes your fancy.

Soak cashews in water overnight and drain. Blend cashews and 2 cups of water in a vitamix until absolutely smooth.
Heat the remaining 1/2 cup of water until simmering, add in gelatin, remove from heat and whisk very well. Let sit for a few minutes. Add in the blended cashew milk, return to heat and whisk for 3-4 minutes until much thicker.

Put cut up fruit in an 8X8 or glasses, add creamy mix and chill 4-5 hours.

I made the Florentine cookies per the recipe, just with GF all purpose flour, and they came out perfectly. Crispy, crunchy, just the right amount of sweet, and the topping worked beautifully.

I set them on our freezer to cool, left the room and when I returned, a few were covered in cat hair and the cat was sitting and ignoring me completely. Couldn’t have been him, right?

All in all, what a fun DB experience. Please do see the Daring Baker Blogroll for other adventures!