Smooth and creamy Coconut Panna Cotta paired with citrusy blood orange curd — easy AND impressive. With only 10 minutes of hands-on prep, and easy to make a day or two in advance, it’s the perfect dinner party dessert!

In chemical kinetics, reactions have something called the rate-limiting step: it’s the slowest step in the reaction and it determines the overall speed at which the reaction can occur.  

In a multi-step reaction, nothing can proceed faster than the rate-limiting step — makes sense, right?

For my little food blog, writing posts is the rate-limiting step.  

I have an overflowing queue of recipe ideas, things I’ve made and tested and tweaked, photographed recipes, and edited pictures.  

But sitting down and actually writing the post?  That’s my personal bottleneck.  I have so many recipes and photos waiting in the wings that sometimes I forget about them.

Like this coconut panna cotta, which I made two months ago with the blood oranges left over from the blood orange olive oil cake.  And then I promptly forgot about the recipe and photos, until we ate dinner at Nopi while on vacation in London.

Yes, Nopi was outstanding and yes, it’s completely worth the hype.  And yes, we did have the famous burrata with blood orange and coriander seeds, which immediately reminded me of the blood orange curd paired with this coconut panna cotta.

Thank you, Yotam Ottolenghi, for both a delicious dinner and for reminding me that I needed to share this recipe ASAP.  Blood orange season is starting to come to a close (sob!) and I can’t think of a better send off.

Panna Cotta: Classic Italian Dessert

Panna cotta is a classic Italian dessert.  The name means “cooked cream” and that’s exactly what it is — cream, cooked with sugar and gelatin. 

Because of the gelatin, it’s a little bit wobbly, but the cream keeps the consistency soft and, well… creamy.  It’s often flavored with coffee, vanilla, or liquors, or has a sauce poured overtop (or in this case, fruit curd).

It can be served either in a glass (like here) or flipped upside-down and un-molded and served on a plate.

Panna cotta is also naturally gluten and grain free (which means it’s also perfect for Passover!).

10 Minutes to make Panna Cotta

If you’ve never made panna cotta before, it’s easy.  So easy, my not-yet-two-year-old practically made this on his own (he’s an expert whisk-er).

Literally, all you do is combine milk, gelatin, and sugar, and heat.  That’s it.

The most difficult part is getting the mixture to the appropriate temperature: too cold, and the gelatin won’t melt all the way.  But bring the mixture to a boil and the gelatin loses its thickening power.  Heat until steaming – no more, no less.

Since gelatin is the star of panna cotta, it seems like it’s the perfect time for my favorite subject… kitchen chemistry!

Kitchen Chemistry

Gelatin is a protein with some really unique properties.  When gelatin is heated in water, the protein molecules begin to unwind, a process called denaturing.  As they continue to heat, most proteins then bind to other proteins, forming a solid mass.  Gelatin, however, does not form new bonds to other gelatin molecules, meaning the solution will stay liquid when heated.  As gelatin cools, however, the gelatin strands form a triple matrix structure, with gelatin hydrogen bonded to water.  This gelatin-water structure forms the jiggly gel we associate with jell-o.

How to Make Blood Orange Curd

The coconut panna cotta is delicious on its own, but I love really boldly flavored desserts. 

To make this stand out even more, we’re adding blood orange curd.  That’s right, curd made out of everyone’s favorite blood oranges!

The curd is just as easy (maybe even easier?) to make as the coconut panna cotta.  One saucepan and a little bit of whisking.  The hardest part is juicing the oranges!

To make blood orange curd, combine the blood orange juice with egg, egg yolks, sugar, and butter. That’s it! 

Once slightly cooled, spread it on top of the chilling panna cotta, let it firm up in the refrigerator, and you’re done.  

(Don’t like blood oranges?  You can sub in any citrus for the curd — orange, clementine, tangerine, even lemon or lime.  Don’t like citrus?  I bet this would be equally delicious with some raspberry curd or blueberry cardamom curd, too!)

Making Panna Cotta in Advance

Panna cotta can be made and refrigerated a day or two in advance. 

If you plan on doing a molded panna cotta, I generally keep it in the molds, covered with plastic wrap, until I’m ready to serve it.  

Even easier: it can be made well in advance and frozen! 

Make the panna cotta, cool it to room temperature, and pop it into the freezer, well-wrapped with plastic wrap (and still in the mold).  Remove from the freezer, pop out of the mold, and allow the panna cotta to thaw for 2-3 hours before serving.

Tips and Tricks for the Best Panna Cotta

1. Bloom the gelatin before heating. By dissolving the gelatin first, it will better absorb liquid.
2. Heat the milk and gelatin only until steaming. Underheat and the gelatin won’t fully melt but heat too much and the gelatin won’t thicken properly.
3. If you plan to unmold the panna cotta before serving, lightly oil each mold with neutral oil before filling and be sure to chill for at least 4 hours.

More Easy Fruit Dessert Recipes:

• Cranberry Curd Pie
• No Bake Cheesecake Parfaits with Blueberry Curd
• Lemon Pie Bars
• Cherry Bakewell Tart
• All Fruit Desserts »