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How to make homemade panna cotta the traditional way with heavy cream and a whole food sweetener for a healthy, low-sugar dessert.
This recipe plus video lesson features my traditional foodie friend Maureen Diaz.
She demonstrates how to make the traditional Italian dessert known as panna cotta.
Maureen is a Mother of 9 and has been the Chapter Leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation for many years.
She currently hosts the podcast God’s Good Table with her daughter Erin.
Many thanks to Maureen for sharing her knowledge with all of us!
Serving Suggestions
Panna cotta is a must-learn dessert if you love cream!
While raw grassfed cream from a local farm is best for this recipe, you can use pasteurized cream in a pinch. The sturdy fatty acids in cream are resistant to heat damage (unlike milk proteins which become denatured).
If you don’t have a local dairy farm that serves your community, I suggest taking a look at this brand of cream that is widely available.
Another option is to use a turkey baster to remove the cream from raw milk (or low-temp pasteurized, “cream top” milk).
*Do not use ultra-pasteurized cream, as it is highly allergenic from excessive processing.
For more panna cotta serving suggestions, check out the linked article with pictures!
Sweeteners and Substitutions
Please do not use honey for this recipe instead of maple syrup.
Honey should not be cooked according to traditional Ayurvedic cuisine.
If you prefer to use a fruit sweetener, I suggest date syrup.
Gelatin (ideally a brand tested for purity) must be used as the gelling agent. Hydrolyzed collagen, though similar, will not work.
Use whole coconut milk or homemade almond milk if desired for a dairy-free panna cotta.
Panna Cotta Recipe
Panna cotta recipe made with only four whole food ingredients for a healthy, low-sugar dessert as is traditional to Italian cuisine.
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups cream heavy, preferably grassfed
- 2.5 tsp gelatin unflavored, preferably grassfed
- 2 Tbl maple syrup preferably organic and very dark
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
- fresh berries or other fruit for topping
Instructions
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Dissolve the plain, unflavored gelatin in a tablespoon or two of boiling water.
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Pour one cup of cream into a medium sized saucepan. If using vanilla bean, slice lengthwise down the pod, scrape out the seeds and add them to the saucepan (discard the pod).
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Stir the water with dissolved gelatin into the cream and vanilla bean mixture in the pan. Turn on low heat and stir until completely dissolved.
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Turn off the heat and add the rest of the cream and maple syrup. Blend in vanilla extract if you did not use vanilla bean in the first step.
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Pour the panna cotta mixture into a serving dish, cover and chill for an hour or two until set.
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Serve when chilled. Top with berries or other fruit if desired. It is simply delicious served plain too.
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Keep panna cotta leftovers refrigerated in a glass bowl with a lid. It will keep for about 4-5 days.
Recipe Video
Lol…I am sitting here with my almost 2 year old watching the video. It was great and now that it is over he keeps saying, “I see butter, I see butter.” He knew what that was and wants to watch it again.
Hi Sarah,
I have done this desert a few time now and it is very delicious. Today I watched the video again and I noticed that Maureen mentions at the end that we can use coconut milk instead of the cream. She also mentions something about a coconut creamer and butter that you mix with water. What is it all about? I am a little confused here. What do we do if we want to use coconut instead of the cream? Is regular coconut milk good enough or does it need to be thickened with something?
Thank you and Happy New Year!!!
Hi Alina, regular whole coconut milk is fine but you would still require the gelatin for thickening. Glad you are enjoying the recipe!
Hi Alina, since making this video, I've made this recipe using both heavy, thick cream and with pourable cream. It works great with either.
The recipe is actually 2 1/2 cups cream as given to me by Maureen.
Hi Sarah,
Maureen said the she used 4 cups of cream but your recipe underneath says 2.5 cups. I guess that it is a typo?
Thank you.
I am really looking forward to making this recipe. Today I was able to get some raw cream. I was told that the cream I bought was “medium” cream. Whatever that means but your recipe calls for heavy cream. Would it still work? Could you please explain a little bit these different types of cream? What are the differences, are they all interchangeable for recipes? Can I make my own at home? I guess I should collect the cream on top of the milk but how long do I wait to collect it, any other instruction? The milk that I am getting is from Jersey cows.
Thank you very much.
Hi Naomi,
I use the Bernard Jensen beef gelatin from California with good results and it is certified kosher.
Cheers
Kelly, that is so funny that we have similar kitchens. I guess gals who blog about real food have similar taste in kitchen decor perhaps??? I must admit that I cleaned the stovetop before the video rolled. These videos are great for keeping my kitchen more tidy, that's for sure.