Silky smooth with just the right hint of lemon, that’s this delicious and easy lemon buttermilk panna cotta. Served with a raspberry coulis.

Lemon buttermilk panna cotta

Years ago, when I was still under the impression that making a panna cotta would be difficult, I bought this small book. It was called Panna cotta and written bij Camilla Saulsbury. When it arrived I was somewhat disappointed to find out that the recipes did not have photos. Well there were a couple of pictures but really not the best and not a lot either. And I buy books based on the photos normally, so you can see the disappointment.

However, that said; the recipes did not disappoint and it was what started my panna cotta addiction. I’m not entirely sure – as the original recipe dates back to 2008 – if I made this from the book or not. I’m guessing I did, but I’ve made it so many times since that I kind of forgot the exact origin.

Easy recipe

If you’re under the assumption that panna cotta is difficult to make, try this lemon buttermilk panna cotta and you’ll find out that it is quite easy actually. It’s no more work than mixing the ingredients, melting the gelatin and pouring it into cups. Job done. Obviously it still needs to set in the fridge and you also need to get them out of the ramekins. Which is possibly the hardest part, but check the tips below and you’ll have perfect little lemon buttermilk panna cotta each time.

How to unmould panna cotta

Unmolding the panna cotta is not really very difficult but it is one of those tricks that you gotta try. First of all it helps if you have special panna cotta ramekins. Those are generally made of aluminium or something that will be easier to heat. I could only find them in 100 pcs at the time, but these are the ones I use.

You need something that conducts the heat. In order to get them out of their mould you fill a container with hot water. Dip each ramekin into the hot water (obviously making sure the water does not get into the ramekin itself) and let it sit for 5-10 seconds.

Now take it out and place your serving plate on top of the ramekin. Holding it with two hands, turn it over and if all goes well it should drop onto the plate. You can now gently remove the ramekin. It tends to work every single time. Obviously you can also serve the lemon buttermilk panna cotta in the containers itself. In which case you can put into anything you like.

Serve with raspberry coulis

For serving you can use whatever you like, but for these lemon buttermilk panna cotta I chose raspberry coulis. That is no more than pureed raspberries and you can optionally mix that with a bit of lemon juice and sugar. I use a fork to puree the raspberries as I like to have some texture in them. You can also use a stick blender if you prefer.