Daring Baker Challenge - Orange Blossom, Chocolate and Raspberry Panna Cotta

panna cotta served on florentine cookie and with a macaron!

It’s my second month doing The Daring Baker’s challenge. It was fun participating in the Challenge and I learned a lot along the way. It was fascinating to see how one recipe can create so many variations and that The Daring Bakers members are so creative.

The Challenge is revealed on the first day of each month.  Each month, I can’t wait to see what would be the challenge for the month. It has been so much fun.

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.

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert with a soft jelly texture. That would be served as is or with fruits, biscuits, sauces, and the like.

I love panna cotta and make them quite often. It is a delicious dessert that is so easy to make, truly simple yet so special.  Usually, I would make a simple vanilla panna cotta and serve them with fresh fruits, e.g. fresh strawberries soaked in orange juice and a bit of sugar.

My improvised panna cotta mould

 However, being a part of the Challenge, it feels like I have to do more. So, instead of a simple one-flavor panna cotta, I opted for three-favour, three-layer panna cotta, with orange flower, chocolate and raspberry layers, served with Florentine cookies and raspberry coulis.

The Florentine cookie was also part of the challenge. I have never made this cookie before or had one, for that matter. The cookie was really nice. It resembled Oat Crisp cookie a little, only sweeter, much sweeter. I never thought of serving biscuit with panna cotta before. So, I was pleasantly surprised that it worked so well.

Making three-layer panna cotta was quite involved as I needed to make two different types of milk jelly and raspberry jelly. Additionally, I would have to wait for each layer to set before I can pour another layer on top of it, to make sure that layers will totally separated. The panna cotta mixture also needed to be completely cool before being poured into the other layers.

Three-layer panna cotta tasted really good.  The flavors worked well together. It made the eating experience more enjoyable and never boring. It was worth the effort. Oh, and the presentation was great with the multi-color layers too.

Delicious!

I love The Daring Baker Challenge! Can't wait for next month's!

Note: you can check out the recipe and have a look what other DB members have whipped up for the challenge at The Daring Kitchen website.