I want to make popcorn panna cotta. I had a couple of ideas for this, either steeping milk in popped corn or (my preferred option) melting butter popcorn Jelly Belly beans into the milk and then making a panna cotta from that.
These were to be served as petit four with a caramelised popcorn piece on top, and so I was going to make them in ice cube trays so each one was bite size.
However I wasn't able to get the texture right. I tried melting different amounts of jelly belly beans in my milk, but they never seemed to solidify just going a sort of thick creamy consistency with the tops sometimes getting a skin on in the more concentrated versions. Then if I added gelatine as I would for making a panna cotta then they came out firm and rubbery.
So apart from continuing to try different amounts of gelatine in my dissolved Jelly Belly mixture, does anyone have any ideas what I might be able to do to get this to work?
(I'm going to try using the steeped milk/real popcorn version again, but this wasn't that popcorny and tasted slightly of the oil that the corn was popped in. It should at least be easier to get the consistency right on that one)
Best Answer
It might be that the interior part of the Jelly Bellys are messing up the texture of the finished product. Have you tried just infusing them long enough for the sugar coating to dissolve, and then straining out the jelly like interiors? I believe that the sugar part is what contains all the flavor, and the "guts" are just plain. HTH!