Daring Bakers: Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

We completed our first Daring Cooks challenge and now it is time for the first Daring Bakers challenge!  We were excited because we haven't made either item for this challenge either!  We decided that these desserts would be perfect for Valentine's day weekend!

We were challenged with making a Panna Cotta and were allowed to be creative with the flavorings of a gelee to go with it.  At first I was envisioning a peanut butter and jelly theme to our Panna Cotta, but as soon as the thought of lime and coconut entered my head it would not go away!  The idea of something tropical and summery sounded great since we keep getting so much snow!!

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.


First, we made a lime gelee.

1 tsp unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (was about 4 limes)
1 tsp lime zest


 In a small cup, sprinkle the gelatin over 1 tablespoon of cold water and let stand until softened, about 3 minutes. In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of the sugar with 2 tablespoons of water and simmer over moderate heat just until the sugar is dissolved. Remove the sugar syrup from the heat and whisk in the softened gelatin until dissolved. Stir in the lime juice and 1/2 teaspoon of the lime zest.  Pour into glasses.  Refrigerate for about 15-30 minutes until set.

Then we made the Panna Cotta.  Instead of using whole milk we used coconut milk so that our Panna Cotta would be a honey coconut Panna Cotta.  

I also made some in my heart shaped silicone muffin pan; however, we couldn't get them to un-mold properly. The gelee layer stuck to the bottom. FAILURE!!!  It still tasted good though! :)

Here are the cookies we made.  D liked the ones that were slightly softer and I actually liked the really crispy ones (they tasted more like caramel that way).  


Since we didn't have dark corn syrup we used a little molasses in place of some of the corn syrup to give it a darker color.

Here are the cookies out of the oven.

The cookies needed a chocolate drizzle.

Another picture of the final presentation!

If you'd like to try the recipes visit HERE.