Panna Cotta with Glazed Oranges

A few nights ago, I woke to the tap of my eight year old asking him to cover him up.  (Every night around 1 am, he comes in from his room with all of his blankets.  He taps me and asks me to cover him up.  He then gets into his second bed, which happens to be on the floor of my bedroom).  Sometimes I have a hard time falling back asleep after I've been woken up.  This night was one of those nights and as I lie in my bed trying to go back to sleep, my thoughts were filled with visions of panna cotta and something I could top it with (weird, I know).  Being that citrus is in season, oranges seemed they'd make a nice fit.  Simple, creamy panna cotta topped with citrusy (is that a word), syrupy oranges.  Can you guess what I made the next day?

Panna Cotta with Glazed Oranges

2 Cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 packet unflavored powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water

Lightly oil eight 1/2-cup ramekins with vegetable oil.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a small bowl and let stand 10-15 minutes.  In a medium sized saucepan heat heavy cream, whole milk, sugar and a pinch of salt.  Once the sugar has dissolved and cream/milk mixture comes to a simmer, remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.  Add the gelatin mixture to cream, stirring to dissolve.  Divide the Panna Cotta mixture among the prepared ramekins, chill until firm, 4 hours.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Dip ramekins, 1 at a time, into a bowl of hot water 3 seconds. Run a thin knife around edge of each ramekin and invert ramekin onto center of a small plate. 

*I poured my panna cotta into small glass containers and didn't unmold them because of the shape of the container.

Glazed Oranges

4 oranges
1/2 cup sugar

Using a sharp knife, segment 3 of the oranges.  To do this, slice a little off the top and bottom of the orange.  Next, trim away the skin and the pith (starting at the top, slice downward following the curve of the orange, trimming away and discarding the pith and the peel).  Next, hold the orange over a bowl.  Slip the knife between the membranes of the orange to remove individual orange segments.  Let the juices and the orange segments fall into the bowl.

Juice the fourth orange:  it should yield about 1/2 cup juice.  If there isn't quite enough, add some of the juice from the segmented oranges.  Pour the juice into a medium sized saucepan and add the sugar.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture bubbles and reduces to a golden orange syrup, about 10 minutes.  Pour the syrup into a glass bowl and let cool until just warm.

Pour syrup over orange segments and spoon a few orange segments and a little of the syrup onto the panna cotta.  Serve.

Recipe adapted slightly from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life