Chocolate Panna Cotta, it's creamy and smooth with a rich chocolate flavour. Easy to whip up then left to chill in the fridge, it's the perfect make-ahead dessert for dinner parties, weekends and special occasions.
Panna Cotta is a traditional Italian dessert that literally means cooked cream. It's one of the simplest desserts you can make and you can change it up with so many different flavours such as classic vanilla, lemon, strawberry and of course chocolate!
What Chocolate To Use?
Dark chocolate is my favourite type of chocolate to use when making desserts. This Panna Cotta is made with sugar, vanilla, cream and milk so dark chocolate is perfect for this recipe, I recommend using at least 70% cacao. Milk chocolate would make this dessert much sweeter and would lack the intense chocolate flavour this dessert has.
Adding chocolate to the panna cotta gives it almost a mousse-like texture, it's smooth and creamy and slightly fluffy. It's extremely delicious and a great, light dessert for after dinner.
- If you love white chocolate then check out my White Chocolate Panna Cotta Recipe.
How To Make Chocolate Panna Cotta - Step By Step
First, add the gelatine leaves to a bowl of cold water and let it sit for 10 minutes until soft.
Add the cream, milk, sugar to the sauce pan. Scrape the vanilla seeds from inside the pod and add the vanilla to a saucepan on medium/low heat. Heat the mixture until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the milk and cream to a simmer then turn off the heat.
Tip: Place your used vanilla pod in a jar of sugar, this will add a lovely vanilla flavour to the sugar that can be used when baking.
Add the finely chopped chocolate to the milk and cream and stir slowly until the chocolate has completely melted (photos 1-5)
Squeeze the gelatine to remove as much water as possible then add it to the hot cream and chocolate. Whisk constantly until the gelatin has melted then set the saucepan aside to cool (photos 6-8).
Once cooled strain the mixture into serving glasses and place in the fridge to set for at least 2-3 hours before serving.
More Italian Desserts To Try;
- Orange chocolate cantucci biscuits
- Pandoro Christmas cake with pistachios and white chocolate
- Tiramisu ice cream
- Apple olive oil cake
- Chocolate hazelnut ice cream
If you've tried this chocolate panna cotta or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I'm getting up to.
Chocolate Panna Cotta
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup (300ml) cream
- 1 ⅛ cup (250ml) milk
- 3 leaves gelatine * see notes for conversion
- 1 ½ tbsp (20g) sugar
- 3.5 oz (100g) dark chocolate 70% cacao , finely chopped (or use dark chocolate chips)
- ½ vanilla pod
Instructions
- First, add the gelatine leaves to a bowl of cold water and let it sit for 10 minutes until soft.
- Add the cream, milk, sugar to a saucepan. Scrape the vanilla seeds from the bean/pod and add vanilla to a saucepan on medium/low heat. Heat the mixture until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the milk and cream to a simmer then turn off the heat.
- Add the finely chopped chocolate to the milk and cream and stir slowly until the chocolate has completely melted.
- Squeeze the gelatine to remove as much water as possible then add it to the hot cream and chocolate. Whisk constantly until the gelatin has melted then set the saucepan aside to cool.
- Once cooled strain the mixture into serving glasses and place in the fridge to set for 2-3 hours.
Notes
- You can substitute 3 gelatine leaves for 1 tablespoon of powdered gelatine. Please note I have not tested this recipe with powdered gelatin.
Nutrition
- I always use extra virgin olive oil in all of my recipes unless stated otherwise
- When I use canned or jarred tomatoes of any kind I always use Cirio or Mutti brands for the best results and flavour.
- All vegetables are medium sized unless stated otherwise
- All recipes are tested and developed using a fan (convection) oven
- Find out more about how nutrition is calculated.
- Check out our must have Italian Pantry Staples.
- You can also find all our Essential Kitchen Tools for Italian Cooking.
Laura
Is there a way of stopping the thicker skin you get on top of the panna cotta when it has set in the fridge?
Inside the rustic kitchen
Hmm, I've never had that happen before. I would try putting plastic wrap (cling film) directly on top of the panna cotta after pouring it into moulds or glasses, that's what I do with custards to prevent a skin forming.
CurlyhairYogigirl
Straining the mixture before pouring into the dessert cups will prevent the “skim” for forming.
Chris C.
Tried out this recipe the other day the texture was amazing!
I substituted the 3 gelatin leaves for 1 gelatin envelope. it works! when re hydrating the envelope you may want to use 2.5-3 tbsp of water.
also if you use dark chocolate you may have to add more sugar to balance out the flavors. I went with a 78% cocoa. there was still a rich chocolate flavor, but i would up the sugar to about 2.5-3 tbsp or so.
overall great and easy to follow recipe.
Inside the rustic kitchen
Hi Chris, thanks for sharing your great tips, I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
Barbara Turner
Gonna try it! Looks better than my fav - Mousse! Can't wait!
Lisa
I want to crawl through the screen - that panna cotta looks luscious! I think that's what I want for Thanksgiving dessert -- to heck with pumpkin pie!
Liz @ I Heart Vegetables
Wow that looks delicious! (And your photos are so gorgeous!) I've never had a chocolate panna cotta!
chris
I don't have a massive sweet tooth but this chocolate panna cotta could well be a game changer. It looks absolutely HEAVENLY! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Maria | passion fruit, paws and peonies
This is my type of recipe! Wonderful! x
Inside the rustic kitchen
Thank you Maria, so happy you like it!
maria
I am definitely a fan of dark chocolate and I am drooling right now!!! This looks amazing. Fantastic photography... thanks for posting ♥
Inside the rustic kitchen
Aw, thanks so much Maria that's so nice of you!
Patty
Exactly the recipe I was looking for! I'm in love with chocolate panna cotta, my family will love it too!
Inside the rustic kitchen
I hope they do, you can't go wrong with chocolate and cream!
Traci @ The Kitchen Girl
This looks like the perfect dessert any night of the week! Such a cute idea...love the individual servings 🙂
Inside the rustic kitchen
Thanks so much Traci!
Pretty
I love the easy step but step instructions, can't wait to try this recipe.
Inside the rustic kitchen
Thanks so much Pretty!
Vicky @ Avocado Pesto
Panna cotta is literally one of my all time favorite desserts! it is simply the best and love the idea of a chocolate flavor!
Inside the rustic kitchen
It's so delicious with chocolate, it's one of my favourites too!
Kristina
anything that translates to cooked cream? and has chocolate?! *pulls up a chair with a spoon* YES please! this looks amazing!
Inside the rustic kitchen
Haha I know right? there's no way it couldn't taste good!