Honeyed Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta* ~ Creamy and Skinny

Gentle Reader, While I’m closeted writing a novel I hope you’ll enjoy reading, it’s been suggested I post pieces from earlier years … years when I was freshly widowed, living in or near L.A. with my dog, waiting for Bill to appear. Do please bear with me!

A View from 14 years ago: Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Crazy about this…it’s not just gorgeously delicious, it’s fabulously lean.*

Traditional panna cotta—one of Italy’s enduring gifts to the dessert world—is a delicate molded cream composed of three parts heavy cream and one part whole milk… per serving nearly as much fat as ½ cup butter! This recipe has close to ½ teaspoon butter.

Because Greek-style yogurt is so creamy, you don’t notice the lack of fat.

And it’s a breeze to make. Also, for entertaining, it’s prepared ahead of time.

Usually panna cotta is unmolded, but I like to eat it out of a bowl or goblet smothered with fruit. If you serve it within a few hours of chilling—to the point where the gelatin has thickened but not quite gelled—it’s creamiest.

I love this for lunch sprinkled with blueberries or raspberries, just leaning against the garden door watching the birds at the feeder squabbling over their black sunflower seeds.

When you serve it, forget to mention that it’s healthy…

Most recipes say this quantity serves 8. Stingy. My little custard cups are broad, shallow, and hold 6 ounces…filling them almost full makes this serve 5…an odd yield, but one can’t stop eating this cream, and I’d be annoyed if I got less…

Honeyed Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta (5 to 8 servings)

Place 1 cup 1% or 2% milk in a quart-size microwaveable pitcher.

Sprinkle over 2 slightly rounded teaspoons plain unflavored gelatin (actually 2-1/16 teaspoons, less than 1 envelope). Stir or whisk to blend, then ignore for 10 minutes while the milk absorbs the gelatin.

Stir again, cover the pitcher with a microwaveable saucer, and microwave on full power for 1 minute to reach about 135 degrees on the instant read thermometer–the gelatin has dissolved.

Stir in 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract.**

Bit by bit, whisk in 2 cups (16 ounces) plain non-fat or low-fat Greek-style yogurt…

Now whisk in ¼ cup honey…the stronger the flavor, the finer for this dessert is my notion, but maybe add honey to taste…

Divide the cream among 5  to  8 bowls or goblets, leaving at least ¼-inch headspace.

Cover each tightly with film or foil, not touching the pristine surface, and chill.

The panna cotta will be ready to serve after 3 hours…may be unmolded after 4 hours…and will still be delectable  the next day.

Serve in the dishes or goblets topped with fresh fruit—about 3 to 4 cups berries or small chunks of peaches, apricots, plums, or a mixture, and so forth.

If you’re deft, you can unmold each dish*** onto a dish of sweetened pureed fruit (termed a coulis) and top with more fruit.

Once when I had one dish left in the fridge and nary a berry or piece of fresh fruit in the house (oh well, I had a banana, but I hate bananas and only buy them because I’m supposed to, they always turn brown, I always think, “I’ll make banana bread for my mother,” but I never do, I throw them over the fence into the meadow and hope some creature will enjoy very soft banana), I brought out a jar of Mixed Berry Jam from the farmers’ market, spooned over its purpliness. Oh boy. Winter’s panna cotta will be delish…

*Inspired by the recipe in a “Nutrition Action Healthletter.”

**Or cut a 2-inch piece of vanilla bean, slit it down the side, scrape in the seeds, stir to blend thoroughly, breaking up any knots of seeds with a spoon against the side of the bowl. I must say the teeny specks call out, “Real vanilla here! Yum!”

***Google “Unmolding panna cotta”…