Panna Cotta with Madeleines

The perfect hot-weather dessert served with fresh fruit or layered with gelee (try the buttermilk version!)

From top left: layering rose petals with fruit gelee; unfolded panna cotta; large panna cotta that fell apart because I didn't let it set long enough; poached rhubarb with panna cotta; glasses of wine gelee-topped panna cotta; Madeleines

Hello!

I started out looking for a vehicle for the rhubarb which is disappearing from the markets shortly, and ended up making panna cotta to serve with it—several versions, many different sizes, and experimented with layering with fruit-, hibiscus-, and wine-gelées—hard to pick a favorite because they are all delicious and beautiful. I added a recipe at the end for making an easy poached rhubarb in syrup that won’t fall apart when cooked and makes a wonderful tart foil to panna cotta.

One of my all-time favorite restaurant desserts is the buttermilk panna cotta made at Delfina Restaurant in San Francisco, served simply with seasonal fruit. They told me they tried taking it off the menu once, but their customers demanded it back, and it’s been on the menu for at least a couple of decades now ever since. Here’s my homage to theirs—I’ve re-created it using equal parts buttermilk and cream, with a little fresh lemon juice to emphasize the tartness of the buttermilk. In one version I topped mine with a strawberry gelée (use strawberry or any kind of juice in the hibiscus recipe below) and fresh fruit. You can also make it with Greek or plain yogurt (use full-fat).

Panna cotta is the easiest and best summer dessert to make when it’s too hot to bake and all you want is something cool to go with fresh fruit.

MADELEINES: these were published last year and are the best I’ve ever made—light, buttery, and with the classic little hump they develop when baking. Highly recommend making them to go with panna cotta, and easy to make. You can store the batter in the refrigerator for days ahead of making, and they only take 6 minutes to bake. Recipe follows.