Caramel Panna Cotta

You know that feeling when your heart is full, when you feel like jumping and embracing everyone? When you see your daily sacrifice bear fruits? Those little momentes of happiness are not only precious but make life big.
To see my daughter yesterday at the swimming competition made me feel so proud of her, forgetting in one moment all the sweat and fatigue day after day following her, encouraging and even pushing her when she feels low and tired, when she feels she's not up to something. The moment she won her heat (even though she only qualified third in the end) for her was as if she had won the gold olimpic medal. For us, too. She's only nine, but I'm sure these are great lessons for her. The best things in life are those you earn with effort and sacrifice, when you put the last atom of your force into what you're doing.

Fortunately, when it comes to Mondays, there's a less difficult way to feel like you've just climbed the top of Mount Everest.
Want to know what?
The one that follows.
Is there anything more gratifying than a smooth, silky dessert that melts in your mouth and you hope won't finish anytime soon?
Panna cotta often doesn't match this description. Panna cotta often has that excessively gummy texture due to inappropriate quantity of gelatine in it. It's often flavourless, because, let's admit it, there's nothing special about it, it's just cream thickened with some gelatine, what is there so special about it? Maybe the topping is what can save the situation. Maybe.
My favourite topping has always been the caramel sauce. Even more than fruit or chocolate, although I love them all.
And I've made some really good panna cotta before, where ingredients were well balanced, but...
nothing like this.
This is far the best panna cotta you'll ever taste. Don't get discouraged by the long preparation. You can do million other things while the dessert is being baked.  You read correctly, "baked" not "cooked". And there isn't a gram of gelatine in it...

Caramel Panna Cotta
(adapted from here)

* 250 ml fresh heavy cream (with 30-35% m.f.)
* 3-4 TBspoons of caramel sauce 
* 2 egg whites
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/4 vanilla bean
* milk chocolate and a little milk (for topping)

Put the cream and the caramel sauce in a sauce pan and heat almost to a boiling point to make sure all the caramel has melted. Set aside to cool.
You can also melt and caramelize 3-4 TBspoons of brown sugar, then pour in the hot cream and cook on low heat until the caramelized sugar has melted in case you don't have any caramel sauce ready in the fridge.
Add the vanilla extract or the scraped seeds from the vanilla bean.
When the cream mixture has cooled down, add the just lightly broken egg whites and stir them into the cream with a whisk.
Pour the mixture into 4 (100 ml) panna cotta moulds /or ramekins,  and place them into a deeper baking pan. Pour enough water into the pan to reach up to 2/3 of the panna cotta moulds.
Bake the panna cotta in an oven preheated to 140°C for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove from the oven, let cool to room temperature and then chill in the fridge for a couple hours.
Remove the panna cotta from the moulds onto serving dessert plates and serve with chocolate topping.
To prepare the chocolate topping, chop some milk chocolate and melt it with the addition of a little milk to get a fluid consistency. Serve over the panna cotta.
*for a lighter version, you may substitute half the quantity of cream with milk, but the taste is much better and fuller if using cream only.

Panna cotta al caramello
(adattata da qui)

* 250 ml panna fresca (con 30-35% di grassi)
* 3-4 cucchiai di  salsa al caramello 
* 2 albumi d'uovo
* 1/2 cucchiaino di estratto di vaniglia o 1/4 di baccello di vaniglia
* cioccolato al latte e un po' di latte (per la salsa al cioccolato)

Mettete la panna e la salsa al caramello in un pentolino e scaldateli quasi fino al ebollizione mescolando per far sciogliere il caramello. Togliete il pentolino dal fuoco e lasciate raffreddare.
In alternativa (se non avete la salsa al caramello già pronta), sciogliete e fate caramellare 3-4 cucchiai di zucchero di canna, poi versateci dentro la panna calda e cuocete finché lo zucchero non si sarà sciolto nella panna. 
Aggiungete l'estratto di vaniglia o i semi tolti dal baccello.
Quando la panna si sarà raffreddata, unite gli albumi, solo leggermente sbattuti per romperli, mescolando con un frustino ma senza incorporare l'aria.
Versate la panna nei 4 stampini per panna cotta e sistemate i stampini in una teglia alta. Versate l'acqua nella teglia fino a 2/3 di altezza dei stampini.
Infornate a 140°C per circa 1 ora e 1/2.
Togliete i stampini dal forno e lasciateli raffreddare prima a temperatura ambiente e poi nel frigo per un paio d'ore prima di servire.
Preparate la salsina al cioccolato sciogliendo il cioccolato al latte con un po' di latte per ottenere una salsa fluida.
Sformate la panna cotta, sistematela su un piattino e servite con la salsa al cioccolato.
*Per una panna cotta più leggera potete sostituire metà della panna con il latte, ma il sapore e la consistenza saranno sicuramente migliori se fatta con solo panna.

Karamel panna cotta
(recept prilagođen odavde)

* 250 ml svježeg slatkog vrhnja za šlag (s 30-35% m.m.)
* 3-4 žlice gotovog karamel umaka
* 2 bjeljanjka
* 1/2 žličice ekstrakta vanilije ili sjemenke iz 1/4 mahune 
* mliječna čokolada i malo mlijeka (za umak)

Zagrijte skoro do vrenja slatko vrhnje s karamel umakom da se karamel otopi. Ostavite da se potpuno ohladi.
Ako ne želite praviti posebno karamel, karamelizirajte 3-4 žlice smeđeg šećera i dodajte zagrijano slatko vrhnje, polako kuhajte dok se sav karamelizirini šećer ne otopi, pa ostavite da se ohladi. 
Dodajte nastrugane sjemenke vanilije ili pola žličice ekstrakta.
U ohlađeno vrhnje dodajte malo razmućene bjeljanjke (ne mutite ih mikserom već samo malo "razbijte" vilicom ili ručnom pjenjačom). Izmiješajte pjenjačom.
Ulijte smjesu u kalupiće (metalne, keramičke, silikonske) i stavite ih u dublju posudu. Naspite vode da dopire do 2/3 kalupića.
Stavite u pećnicu zagrijanu na 140°C i pecite 1 i pol sat.
Izvadite iz pećnice i kad se ohladi stavite u hladnjak na par sati.
Prije posluživanja, posudice uronite nakratku u vrelu vodu da panna cottu lakše istresete van (eventualno prođite nožem između panna cotte i stijenke posude).
Otopite mliječnu čokoloadu s malo mlijeka pa poslužite uz ovu panna cottu.

* za malo lakšu verziju, možete umjesto vrhnja koristiti pola vrhnje, a pola mlijeko, okus je naravno bolji i puniji ako se radi samo s vrhnjem.