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It’s time for February’s Daring Bakers challenge. Unfortunately real life got in the way a little this month, and I will need to do this one again to get the full range of photos!

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.

I’m not too keen on Florentines usually, but luckily this recipe was a little different.

Vanilla Panna Cotta

This recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis

• 240 ml whole milk
• 7 g powdered gelatin
• 720 ml whipping cream
• 80 ml honey
• 15 g granulated sugar
• pinch of salt

Pour the cold milk into a bowl, sprinkle over the gelatin and leave for 5 minutes.

Warm the milk and gelatin in a pan over a medium heat for about 5 mins, whisking, without letting it boil.

Add the cream, honey, sugar and salt and heat for a further 5-7 minutes until the ingredients have all dissolved in the milk. Let the mixture cool slightly and then pour into your serving dishes, glasses or ramekins. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Florentines

This recipe is from “Nestle Classic Recipes”

• 150 g unsalted butter
• 160 g quick oats
• 230 g granulated sugar
• 95 g plain flour
• 60 ml corn syrup (or golden syrup/treacle)
• 60 ml whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 250 g chocolate

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the oats, sugar, flour, syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.

Spoon the Florentine mixture onto baking parchment on a baking tray.

Leave plenty of room for each of the Florentines to spread out as they bake. Bake at 190°C for 6-8 minutes until golden brown.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate. When the Florentines are cool, decorate them with chocolate.

Unfortunately my panna cotta was a bit of a disaster because they didn’t set in 6 hours, and I didn’t have time to let them set. In future I would leave them overnight. They were delicious and creamy, even though they were quite  runny.