Making Valentine’s Day Delicious with Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta & Mexican Chocolate Flourless Cake

By Editor January 26, 2016 09:59

By: Brian Garrido

Valentine’s Day is meant for lovers, but it can also be for single people and a gathering of platonic friends. Just because you’re not coupled doesn’t mean you have to be an ostrich with your head in the sand. For example, groups of women can plan a ladies’ night. Men can play poker. Gather a bunch of spiritually inclined single friends and play Twister. Just because you don’t have the romance, it doesn’t mean the abundant love your friends give you should count any less. So, celebrate with them by by dining out, or cooking at home and chillin’.

If so motivated, Talavera – the signature restaurant at the Four Seasons Resorts Scottsdale, helmed by Chef Mel Mecinas – is hosting a six-course tasting menu at $140 per person with a supplement of $65 for wine pairings. The luxurious epicurean experience includes Osetra caviar with white asparagus and a seven-minute egg, Dungeness crab salad with apple, sea grass and avocado and a pancetta-wrapped veal loin with lobster béarnaise. The meal includes a decadent chocolate desert of Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta with Agave Passionfruit Bananas and Mexican Chocolate Flourless Cake made by the restaurant’s resident pastry chef, Lance Whipple.

If you can’t make the dinner and prefer to stay at home playing poker or Twister, or watching a movie with compadres – you can still experience the evening’s sweetness by making it at home. Nothing says, “I love/like you” better than making a chocolate dessert for any of your favorite people. This recipe does need a little prep time, but aerating a bottle of red wine does too. Didn’t stop you from drinking it!

Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta with Agave Passionfruit Bananas & Mexican Chocolate Flourless Cake

(Serves 4, adapted from Pastry Chef Lance Whipple)

Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta

5 pieces Gelatin Sheets

¾ cup Milk

12 ounces Milk Chocolate

1 ¾ Heavy Cream

To Make the Panna Cotta:

Bloom the gelatin. Bring milk to a boil, add gelatin, and pour over chocolate, emulsify well. Add cold cream. Pour into individual ramekins. Allow the ramekins to cool uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.

Mayan Chocolate Flourless Cake

12 ounces Mexican Chocolate (64%)

¼ cup Cocoa Powder

1 ¼ cup Unsalted Butter

7 Eggs, yolks and whites separated.

1 ½ cups Sugar

2 tsp. Ancho Chili Powder

¼ Cream of Tartar

To Make The Cake:

Melt the first three ingredients. Whip yolks and one cup of sugar together until mixed together looking like yellow and white ribbons entwined. Beat the egg whites, remaining sugar, and cream of tartar to firm peaks. Fold chocolate into yolks and then fold into whites. Scoop into tall ring molds (Spray rings with nonstick spray) and bake at 325 until toothpick comes out clean.

Agave Passionfruit Bananas

4 Bananas

2 cups Sugar

1 cup Passionfruit Juice

½ cup Agave

Over medium heat, mix the sugar and agave to make a caramel sauce. Deglaze the pan with the passion fruit juice and pour over the bananas. Set aside.

To Serve:

Remove panna cotta from ramekins by sliding butter or dulled knife around the edges. Gently invert onto a plate. Carefully place bananas on top. Sprinkle large pieces of the chocolate cake and – if available any chopped nuts over and around the dessert. Top with extra passion fruit juice.

This recipe was provided by Chef Mel Mecinas from Scottsdale’s Talavera Restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort. To find out more information or to make your reservations, please visit their official website.