Ridiculously Easy Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

A Ridiculously Easy Italian dessert that tastes like it comes from a fancy ristorante, this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna cotta will make you look like a kitchen rock star!

In our Key Lime Cooler Cookies post I shared that Scott and I spent a week in Savannah in early April. It was a lovely 7 days spent roaming the historic streets lined with beautiful antebellum homes while listening to the "clop, clop, clop" of horse-drawn carriage tours. We also enjoyed discovering the manicured squares (22 of them!) shaded with huge stately, Spanish moss-covered oak trees and shopping the charming, unique boutiques scattered in the area surrounding our Airbnb. The inspiration for this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta came from one of those little shops.

I get recipe inspiration from the most diverse places, situations and experiences. Sometimes I simply walk into a grocery store and encounter a gorgeous display of some seasonal fruit or vegetable and next thing a new salad idea pops into my crazy brain. Other times, it's a meal at a restaurant, a culinary class, a bakery visit, edible flowers growing in our garden or an email from Bon Appétit or NYT Cooking.

A prop

This time it was a prop. As I mentioned above, our Airbnb in Savannah was in a lovely walkable area and there were lots of interesting restaurants and shops nearby. One day, while out for an afternoon stroll, we discovered a delightful home decor boutique. As we were wandering through the shop and admiring the beautiful displays, I spotted a shelf with some of the prettiest little cocktail glasses.

I pointed them out to Scott, saying, "Look at those beautiful ridged glasses! They would be perfect for panna cotta!" Right then and there, my mind started rolling with the idea for this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta. And not too much later, we walked out the door with a set of tissue-wrapped glasses in a pretty boutique bag.

That evening, I started testing panna cotta and, after a few renditions, this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta evolved. With the strawberry season just beginning in Savannah, I paired it with a bright fresh berry sauce, our super easy Strawberry Coulis.

What is panna cotta?

Panna cotta is an Italian-inspired dessert that is translated, "cooked cream". Its' cast of characters is super simple and includes cream, sugar, gelatin and often some type of flavoring. I decided to go with lemon zest and vanilla. I have also added a sprig or two of rosemary as the cream steeps for a lovely herbal layer of flavor.

To me, the important thing about panna cotta, is getting the right texture. It should be a bit wobbly or wiggly with just enough gelatin to hold the cream together. It took a few tests and tweaks but I think this Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta has the perfect wiggly wobble!

Less than 10 minutes hands-on time

It will take you only a few minutes of hands-on time to make this delicious panna cotta. How does it work? Just combine heavy cream, half and half, lemon zest and vanilla bean paste (or scraped vanilla bean seeds) in a medium-large pot and place it over medium-high heat until the mixture just begins to simmer.

In the meantime, sprinkle an envelope of unflavored gelatin over a quarter cup of water. Let this mixture sit for 5 minutes then pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir the gelatin into the lemony cream mixture and you're almost done. All that's left (on your part) is to pull out your prettiest little bowls or glasses and divide the vanilla bean-speckled mixture between them.

The panna cotta will need at least 4-6 hours in the fridge to finish set up and be ready to serve. I love that this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta is perfect for every day or a fancy dinner party. The fact that it can be made several days in advance makes serving a fabulous dessert a breeze!

Ridiculously Easy

While we're on the subject of easy recipes, let's talk about our Ridiculously Easy collection. If you're a regular Café reader, you're probably very familiar with these recipes so feel free to skip down to the next section. But if you're new here, you may want to spend some time exploring this category as these recipes are super popular with our readers .

You can read all about the specific criteria necessary for a recipe to be included in our RE collection in this post and you'll find the entire collection here. I have a condensed description that goes like this: "These are the recipes that make you look like a kitchen rock star with minimal time and effort on your part."

This Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta checks all the RE boxes!

The best part

Oh, and I've got a wonderful surprise for you. We paid a pretty penny for our lovely ridged glasses at the fancy Savannah boutique shop and I'm crazy about them. But guess what! When we got back home, I discovered the same glasses online for less than half the price! Oh well... our loss, your gain!

Just a thought... make this fabulous dessert for a birthday, Mother's Day or a holiday celebration. Serve it in these fancy glasses then present a set of the glasses as a gift. The birthday person, mom or whoever you're celebrating will be delighted!

Pin this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta recipe so the next time you need a lovely, super delicious dessert you can make lickety-split, you'll have it readily available. ENJOY!

Cafe Tips for making this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

• You'll need unflavored gelatin for this recipe. Here in the U.S., unflavored gelatin is usually sold in a small box with 4 ¼-ounce packets. In my local grocery stores, the available gelatin is made by Knox but there may be other brands.
• I know gelatin often comes in sheets or leaves in other parts of the world. Here's a good article that explains the difference and how to substitute.
• I mentioned above that I sometimes add a sprig or rosemary as I heat up the cream mixture. It's optional but it adds a delicious layer of flavor. You could also use thyme or fresh mint leaves.
• This recipe calls for the zest of two medium-size lemons. A micro-plane zester makes zesting any type of citrus fruit super simple. They're also great for hard cheeses, chocolate, ginger and garlic.
• Don't be tempted to add lemon juice to this recipe. I tried it and the panna cotta texture changed... instead of being light and wobbly (the way panna cotta should be), the texture got firm, more like jello.
• This is a light (in texture) but rich dessert so I like to keep the serving size fairly small. I divide my panna cotta into 6 ¾-cup servings.
• If you live outside of the U.S. or Canada, you might not be familiar with half and half. Half and half is a convenience product often used in coffee. It's simply a mixture of half milk and half cream.
• We love to serve this panna cotta with the Strawberry Coulis mentioned above in the post but it's also wonderful with our Raspberry Coulis or simply fresh fruit with a drizzle of this Limoncello Syrup.

Thought for the day:

Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing. 
Isaiah 40:26

What we're listening to for inspiration:

How Great Thou Art

If you enjoy this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review! It's so helpful to other readers to hear your results, adaptations and ideas for variations.

Scroll Down for the Recipe - or Save It to Your Inbox

We'll email you the recipe so it's easy to save, print, or share.

SUBMIT

Ridiculously Easy Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

Chris Scheuer

A Ridiculously Easy Italian dessert that tastes like it comes from a fancy ristorante, this Lemon Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta will make you look like a kitchen rock star!

5 from 1 vote

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Servings 6 servings

Calories 445

PRINT PIN COMMENTS

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

.5x1x2x

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups half and half
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla bean paste, or 1 medium vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped,
• finely grated zest from 2 medium lemons
• 2 4-inch springs rosemary, optional
• 2¼ teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin, (I use 1 envelope of Knox unflavored gelatin.)
• ¼ cup cold tap water

Instructions

 

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, sugar, vanilla bean paste, (or the scraped vanilla bean, and seeds) and lemon zest (also add the optional rosemary sprigs at this point, if using). Heat the mixture over medium heat until it's just beginning to simmer. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 15 minutes.
2. After 10 minutes, place the ¼ cup of water in a small microwave-safe bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let it sit for 5 minutes until evenly moistened. At this point, the mixture will be thick and opaque.
3. Place the bowl with the gelatin mixture in the microwave and cook for 30 seconds on high power. Stir to make sure all of the gelatin is dissolved. The mixture should now be thinned out and clear.
4. Bring the cream mixture back to the simmering point over moderate heat. Remove from heat, add the gelatin/water mixture and stir well. If you used a whole vanilla bean pod, remove it now and discard.
5. Divide the panna cotta mixture between six small ramekins, glass jars, bowls cocktail glasses. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours (or up to 48 hours).

Notes

See Café Tips above in the post for more detailed instructions and tips to ensure success.

If you prefer to use Metric measurements there is a button in each of our recipes, right above the word “Instructions”. Just click that button to toggle to grams, milliliters, etc. If you ever come across one of our recipes that doesn’t have the Metric conversion (some of the older recipes may not), feel free to leave a comment and I will add it.

Nutrition

Calories: 445kcalCarbohydrates: 23gProtein: 5gFat: 38gSaturated Fat: 24gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 118mgSodium: 71mgPotassium: 182mgSugar: 23gVitamin A: 1452IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 139mgIron: 0.1mg

We love seeing what you made!Tag @thecafesucrefarine on Instagram for a chance to be featured.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian