Lavender & Vanilla infused Goat-Milk Panna Cotta

For years panna cotta was my nemesis. I tried over and over again to make it and for some reason it never turned out. It was like serving delicious chilled milk-soup. When eating out I would order it every chance I could -- trying to demystify what seemed to be a simply made desert. Finally I sorted out that it was the gelatin 'leaves' that I was trying to use and after my mom brought packets of Knox gelatin to me from the US -- I finally found success! Et voila! Now I am making it regularly as it is light, fresh and a great way to use our abundance of goat-milk!

Ingredients

3 cups goat milk (you can use cow's milk but the goat's milk makes it so delicious!)
1 cup of cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean or 2 tsps vanilla extract
2 packets powdered gelatin (about 4 1/2 teaspoons of gelatin powder)
6 tablespoons cold water
1/4 cup lavender simple syrup (see note below)

Method

Heat the milk, cream and sugar in a saucepan or copper 'cul de poule'. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract or drop in your vanilla bean. (If using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds from the bean into the milk/cream and add the bean pod.) Heat the milk mixture until it is almost boiling. It will be steamy but not bubbling. Remove from heat and add the lavender simple syrup.

In the meantime, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes.

Pour the very warm panna cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

Pour or ladle into glass containers and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours (overnight is even better!)

Top with fresh chopped fruit that can also be soaked in the lavender infused simple syrup.