Panna Cotta with Blueberries and Honey

I've made a concerted effort to learn new things about cooking and baking (and drinking) by attending a lot of 'foodie' events lately. It turns out food is a  passion of mine and not just making it but learning about it and of course eating it. It's good for the body and soul. And I'm signed up for a cake decorating class in a couple months so hopefully then I can make pretty things too!

At any rate, when I went to a foodie event over the summer, I met Hedy Goldsmith. She was hilarious and amazing and I pretend we're friends. She made us panna cotta, a yogurt dessert that I'd never experienced. I had hoped to make this sooner but alas life got in the way. 

I do not yet own her cookbook so I google searched for recipes and found one on Smitten Kitchen. Success! I even have left over gelatin from the Fourth of July so was practically set. 

This is one of those recipes that is very precise. When working with gelatin, you can't mess around because it's actually science and not just fake it til you make it science. If it isn't gelatinous, not much you can do. Much like dead yeast and bread (see Parker House rolls experiment). 

So I payed special attention to this recipe and taste tested it along the way. It really tasted like sour cream to me. Granted I think most Greek yogurts have the consistency of sour cream but the plain ones actually resemble its taste. This is where taste testing is important. I added more sugar to make it sweeter and then vanilla as well. I still wasn't convinced but decided that maybe I could flavor it up with some toppings. 

Once it was set, I sampled a small amount of pannacotta that I had set aside. It tasted sweeter but still pretty plain. I added some blueberries on top and doused it in honey--probably toooo much honey, and then garnished with some fresh mint (woah there, gettin fancy). 

All in all this dessert was a nice change of pace from very sweet desserts and was quite refreshing. It's also very versatile because you could add just about any fruit or syrup to this. It's almost like a fancy parfait actually. Props to Hedy for introducing me to this!

For the recipe:

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/04/yogurt-panna-cotta-with-walnuts-and-honey/