Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta With Lemon Curd

Deliciously creamy Panna Cotta served with Luscious Homemade Lemon Curd makes a lovely summer dessert.

I have had a very busy April with lots of cake orders and some of the recipes i use only require the egg whites in the cake batter. What to do with all the left over egg yolks??? I certainly wasn’t going to throw it away. My solution was to make lemon curd. Whiles making the curd i discovered cooked bits of the egg white floating about. Egg whites are prone to coagulation because they cook at a lower temperature. Do not despair all is not lost.Gently straining of the mixture through a sieve will leave you with a smooth mixture.

Panna Cotta came to mind and the lemony lemon curd makes a great accompaniment

Printable Recipe

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Lemon Curd

Ingredients

Lemon Curd

4 unwaxed lemons, zest and juice

250g ( 21/4 cups) caster sugar

100g (1/3 cup) butter

3 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

3 gelatine leaves

60ml (1/4 cup) milk

1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

65g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

600ml (21/2 cups) double cream

Instructions

Lemon Curd

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 – 15 minutes

Yield: 2 9oz jars

Very gently grate the zest from the lemon being careful to avoid the white part.
Squeeze juice from lemon and strain
In heatproof bowl combine lemon zest, juice, sugar and butter. Sit the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water. Stir the mixture frequently until all the butter has melted.
Whisk eggs and egg yolk lightly and stir egg mixture into lemon mixture and stir all the ingredients until well combined. Leave to cook for 10 – 13 minutes, stirring every now and again, until the mixture is creamy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally as it cools. Store lemon curd in sterilised jars and seal once cooked. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yields: 4 ramekins

In a pan combine gelatine leaves and milk then leave to soak. Place sugar, vanilla bean paste and 400ml of cream in another saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer mixture until reduced by one third. Remove the gelatine from milk while the cream is reducing and set aside. Warm milk up then soaked gelatine and stir until completely dissolved. Add gelatine/milk mixture to warm cream, strain through a sieve then leave to cool.
Lightly whip remaining cream, then fold into setting mixture.
Pour mixture into ramekins then place in the fridge to set for 2 – 3 hours.
Take the panna cotta out of the fridge and to unmold slide a knife around the edge of the bowl and dip ramekin very briefly in hot water to loosen.
Tip the panna cotta in the middle of plate and spoon lemon curd over the panna cotta

Notes:

Curd will thicken as it cools.

Lemon curd freezes well.