Anyone Ever "Brûlée" Panna Cotta?

[cm143]

Hi again,

I prefer panna cotta over crème brûlée, but I love the hard caramel crust on the latter. Has anyone ever brûléed panna cotta? Is it possible? I don't see why not :).

Thanks!

[chefpels]

try using agar agar instead of gelatin...agar has a higher melting point, 140 degrees i believe. i serve a pork belly on a pumpkin 'panna cotta' at the restaurant and the heat from the hot pork belly won't melt the panna cotta...there is a textural difference though. you have to COMPLETELY melt the agar in the milk otherwise it will be grainy.
pre-caramelizing sugar would also do the trick, but it's difficult to get the shape of the sugar exactly like the top of the panna cotta. good luck.

[Emme]

if you really want the crunchy contrast, i'd "brulee" some sugar on a piece of foil or parchment, then lay on top of the panna cotta to serve.

[cm143]

Thanks for the great idea! I'll see how it goes.

[sarahjay]

To do a brulee on a more delicate product (panna cotta, creme chiboust, etc) you can pre-caramelize sugar, pour onto a silpat and blitz to dust. The dust will melt into a brulee style crust much more quickly and with less damage to the product below than a traditional brulee method.

[luciaannek]

I'm pretty sure the gelatin in the panna cotta would melt as you brulee it, and that would make it hard to get a crispy crust because of all the liquid under it. My first thought would be to chill the panna cotta really well before hand to prevent this but I'm not sure this would work either...

Not sure, you could certainly try it and report back.

[Lady_Tenar]

Yeah, I think it would just melt the panna cotta. Creme brulee gets it's texture from egg proteins, which don't melt once they're "set" but gelatin does.

[Liz K]

I think panna cotta would be more susceptible to heat then custard...