Root Beer Gelee and Vanilla Panna Cotta

Several months ago I saw a program on the Food Channel about Root beer. I have been in love with root beer since I was a kid so naturally the show captured my attention. The show took viewers through different root beer factories, performed taste tests - you know, the typical things that might be experienced on a show about root beer. Two segments on this show caught my attention, the first was an interview with a guy in texas who makes his BBQ sauce with root beer, and the second was a woman who made a gourmet root beer float.

What was the difference between an ordinary root beer float and the one on the show. The difference was that her root beer was gelatine with a vanilla panacotta topping. Served in a dessert glass, it looks simply...well, yummy. The process looked simple enough and I thought it might be a fun thing to teach in one of our cooking classes so I checked the food channel site for the recipe. I followed the recipe to the letter and it worked beautifully.

Next I tried it with grape soda, and orange soda, orange juice (orange juice did not work at all - orange juice does not like to be heated up) The grape soda was horrible (not recommended) but the root beer soda and orange soda was terrific. I also tried it with coffee - sounds gross but it really was not that bad. I poured an ounce of fresh espresso over the top of the panacotta before tasting. I could imagine it with ground chocolate covered coffee beans as a decorative topper.

I highly recommend the root beer float dessert for your summer dinner party or picnic. It tasted great and is impressive enough.

If you want to try it here is the link to the gourmet root beer float recipe. I would love to hear your opinion of this dessert.