Sugar High Friday Weekend

When I read that the theme for this month’s Sugar High Friday was dairy, I thought immediately of the many dairy-rich desserts that I know and love: custard, cheesecake, mousse… the list goes on. As I contemplated the myriad possibilities, I decided to narrow the field by imposing three criteria: no eggs, dairy as the main ingredient, and something that I’d never cooked before.

Two desserts rose to the top: the Italian panna cotta (”cooked cream”) and the Latin American dulce de leche (literally “sweet of milk”). Both are simple preparations, so I thought, why not make them both?

Panna cotta - a mixture of milk, cream and sugar set with gelatin - may be flavored with just about anything. (As with Bertie Botts’ Every Flavour Beans, you might not like every possible flavor.) Last weekend, I went to see Jerry Traunfeld talk at my local bookstore about (what else?) cooking with herbs, and picked up a copy of his new cookbook. He is a master of herb and spice infusions, so I looked to his books for inspiration. Lucky for me, the Herbfarm Cookbook has a recipe for panna cotta flavored with lavender and ginger. I had a tin of lavender from Purple Haze, but I had no fresh ginger. Traunfeld had discussed the use of fresh bay laurel leaves in custards, so I was not surprised to see that the recipe preceding the panna cotta is bay leaf creme brulee. A friend recently gave us the trimmings from her bay laurel tree; they have mostly dried, but I decided to use a couple in the panna cotta.

Lavender Bay Leaf Panna Cotta
serves 8

3 1/4 cups whole milk (I used half cow’s and half goat’s milk)
1 cup heavy cream
4 teaspoons fresh lavender buds, or 2 teaspoons dried
4 fresh(ish) bay laurel leaves, cracked (Traunfeld’s recipe calls for 6 1/4″ thick slices fresh ginger instead)
1/4 of vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 oz. unflavored gelatin (2 packages)
1/2 cup sugar

In a saucepan, combine 3 cups of the milk and the cream. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then remove the pan from the heat. Add the lavender, bay leaves (or ginger) and vanilla; stir to submerge. (The lavender will float back up to the top; you just want to be sure that it’s thoroughly moistened.) Cover the pan; set aside for 30 minutes. Using a fine sieve, strain the mixture into a pint measuring cup. Press on the herbs to get out all the liquid. You should have 4 cups of infused milk; add a little more milk if needed.

Pour the additional 1/4 cup milk into a saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin on top, and allow it 5 minutes to soften. Add the sugar and 1 cup of the infused milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring, stirring, stirring, until the gelatin and sugar have dissolved and the mixture has just come to a simmer. Remove from heat, and stir in the remaining milk. Ladle milk mixture into 8 very lightly oiled ramekins. Refrigerate until set, at least 3-4 hours.

Other panna cotta recipes I’ve read suggest unmolding with the help of hot water and/or a slender knife, but Traunfeld sees this is a job for the hands: “Use your finger to gently pull and release the custard from the sides of the mold all around the top. With your finger still pulling in one spot to allow air under the custard, turn the mold upside down over a dessert plate and let the custard slip out.” I like handling my food, but this didn’t work for me; I’d suggest a slender knife instead.

I love the lavender in this; its slightly camphory quality balances the sweetness of sugar and vanilla and the richness of cream. I could not pick out the flavor of the bay laurel leaves; perhaps they were not fresh enough, or I used too few of them. Had I been thinking of such things, it might have occurred to me that a carton of goat’s milk labeled “shake well each time before using” was not the best choice for a dessert that required hours to set; when I removed the finished panna cottas (panni cotta?) from the regrigerator, I discovered a thin layer of cream had risen to their tops. (I assume that was from the non-homogenized goat’s milk, but perhaps not?) As a result of this separation, the overall texture was less creamy, and a bit more jello-like than I’d thought it would be.

Dulce de leche (or cajeta) is nothing more than milk, sugar, vanilla (or other flavorings) and a bit of baking soda. Well, that and hours of low heat, which transform the simple ingredients into a rich caramel. I know that many people make this by cooking a can of condensed milk, but what fun would that be? I used this recipe, which has the traditional blend of cow’s and goat’s milk, and a lower sugar to milk ratio than some others. I made a half recipe, using 2 cups each of goat’s and cow’s milk.

Dulce de leche may be cooked down to the consistency of honey, jam, or even fudge. I’d run across a description of alfajores - a traditional Argentine shortbread cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche - and thought that dulce de leche might go well with Mexican chocolate icebox cookies, so I wanted a thick version of the sweet. Thicker means more time on the stove… and my dulce de leche spent 6+ hours on the stove before it reached the consistency that I wanted. No, this is not normal. I had allotted a couple of hours between arriving home from work Friday afternoon and leaving to play a gig on Friday evening for standing over the stove, stirring a pan of milk and sugar. Two hours got me a light tan milk soup. I had to leave, so I turned the burner down to very very low, asked Paul to stir the pan occasionally, and went off to play my violin for some dancing. When I arrived home 3 1/2 hours later, I found on the stove a warm brown, syrupy liquid. It tasted like dulce de leche, but was not thick enough. I brought the liquid back to a simmer, and 45 minutes later strained the hot, honey-thick caramel into a jar. It thickens as it cools, so it’s spreadable at room temperature, and liquid when warm. And it is sweet and mellow, with a lovely light tang from the goat’s milk. My friend Janeen, who spent several years in Mexico, says that it tastes like the real thing.

Not only are the flavors of both recipes quite lovely, but they play well together. The combination of flavor and texture - lavender and caramel, cool creaminess and warm sweetness - is lovely. Sadly, I couldn’t make this pair of recipes look as good as they taste. When I post a small photo, it’s usually because I’m not happy with the quality of the photo, but need a show to go with my tell. That’s true of this photo, but this time, I’m also unhappy with the presentation: tiny bubbles on the surface of the panna cotta, and that thin layer of cream that rose to the top (now bottom); dulce de leche that resisted my (many!) attempts to make an even pattern on the plate. At least it tastes really good.

Addendum: Well, I think it tastes good. I just fed a small spoonful to my custard-loathing averse husband. His commentary: It’s like milk jello with Milk-Dud sauce! There’s no accounting for taste… his or mine.

Technorati tags: SHF + sugar high friday + dairy