Tempranillo Poached Blackberry Panna Cotta w/ Florentine Cookie - Daring Bakers

For the last couple of months, I've been developing a few recipes using the wines from a very lovely winery in Paso Robles - J & J Cellars. While poaching blackberries in their exquisite Tempranillo wine, I imagined how sweet and sultry a Panna Cotta with these flavors would pair.

Tempranillo Poached
Blackberry Panna Cotta w/ Florentine Cookie

James Judd is one of the sons in James Judd and Son's Vineyards and our friendship started years ago in the Entertainment/Sketch Comedy business of Show. Now, he performs an award-winning and hysterical one man show called, "7 Sins", along with many other ventures. His family-owned vineyard has been growing grapes and citrus for over 100 years and passing expertise, talents and instincts down their family lines.

Their Tempranillo under the label, A Cellar Full Of Noise, is affectionately named after lyrics from a Petula Clark song about fun, friends, hanging out and loving life. The Tempranillo is vibrant, spicy and lives up to the dark black fruity grapes of its origins.

The fresh blackberries from the farmer's market, gently poached and added to a milk-honey Panna Cotta, created a dessert that was full bodied, but light on the tongue. It started off creamy and cool, then followed with a deep and lingering fruit and spice combo.The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

With Panna Cotta being this month's challenge, it was a no-brainer to put my original curiosity to the test. Wow, I'm glad I did. First of all, I was lucky to have any blackberries left for the Panna Cotta and the Syrup. Just the berries poached in this beautiful wine alone were being popped into the mouths of myself and my husband as if they were candy.

For one set of Panna Cotta, I also used the Tempranillo for a Gelee to layer in the Panna Cotta and then crumbled the Florentine cookie on top.
James was kind enough to send me a few bottles to drink, I mean -- experiment with for other ideas. I'm also creating a few Wine Jellies, Spice and Marinade mixes and Baked Goods with the Malbec and Barbera wines from J & J Cellars. I'll keep you posted about how they come out.

I would love to hear how you've used wine in your own cooking. As always, thanks for stopping by.
Vanilla Panna Cotta (Giada De Laurentis)

1 cup whole milk
1 Tbls. unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbls. sugar
pinch of salt

1) Pour the milk into a bowl and sprinkle gelatin thinly over cold milk. Let stand for about 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.

2) Pour the milk into a saucepan over med. heat. Heat the milk until it's hot, but not boiling and whisk a few times.

3) Add the cream, honey, sugar and salt and continue to heat while occasionally stirring until sugar and honey has dissolved (about 5-7 minutes). Make sure the mixture does not boil.

4) Remove from the heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Pour into ramekins, glasses or molds that you want to use.

5) Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Garnish and serve.

**For mine, I added a few sliced Tempranillo Wine poached blackberries to the glasses just before pouring in the panna cotta liquid.

Tempranillo Wine Poached Blackberries and Syrup-

1 handful of fresh blackberries
2 cups of Tempranillo Wine
2 Tbls. sugar

1) In a small saucepan add all the ingredients and heat on med. just to hot, but not boiling.

2) Stir gently to dissolve the sugar and continue to heat for about 5 minutes. Remove and let cool (can be held overnight in the refrigerator.)

3) Remove the berries and hold for serving. Return the saucepan of wine to the stove and heat on Med/High until the wine has been reduced by half and is syrupy enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Let cool until serving.

Florentine Cookies - (Nestle Classic Recipes)

2/3 cup butter
2 cups quick oats
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup dark corn syrup (** I used Agave)
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla pinch of salt

(Optionally - melt chocolate for making sandwich cookies or drizzling on top)

1) Melt butter in saucepan, then remove from heat.

2) To the melted butter, add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla and salt. Mix well.

3) Drop a spoonful of batter, 3 inches apart, onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your spoon.

4) Bake in preheated 350F oven for 6-8 minutes. Cool completely on the baking sheet, then peel off and place on rack to remain crisp.

**If sandwiching, put a smear of melted chocolate on the flat side of one cookie and sandwich together with the flat side of another cookie. Or, drizzle melted chocolate over the top. Recipe makes about 2 1/2 dozen sandwiched cookies.

Wine Gelee-

1 cup of wine
1/2 tsp. powdered gelatin
1 tsp. sugar

1) Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup of wine and allow to sit while the gelatin softens.

2) Pour the rest of the wine into a saucepan with the sugar and heat on low.

3) Add the gelatin/wine to the saucepan and stir until all is dissolved. Heat until the wine mixture is very hot, but not boiling for about 5 minutes. Remove and allow to cool completely.

To use with layering Panna Cotta, make sure the wine gelee is room temp before spooning over the chilled and set Panna Cotta layer. Then, refrigerate for an hour to allow the Gelee to set before adding another layer of room temperature Panna Cotta. Return to refrigerator and allow for all to set for serving after several hours or overnight.