Kir Royale Panna Cotta

Ingredients

1 bottle champagne
5 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered gelatin (2 envelopes)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean
2 cups raspberries

Garnish
1 cup raspberries

Instructions

Reduce the champagne in a saucepan set over medium heat to 1 cup. Pour 1 cup cream in a bowl and sprinkle with the powdered gelatin and leave for 5 minutes. Add the remaining cream to a medium saucepan with the reduced champagne, and 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the cream. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves and the vanilla infuses into the mixture. Add the gelatin mixture and heat until warm, stirring so that the gelatin dissolves. Strain the mixture into a bowl and set over an ice bath to cool slightly, stirring frequently.

Crush 1 cup of raspberries with 2 tablespoons sugar and allow to macerate for a few minutes. Put 1 tablespoon of the fruit in the bottom of 8 martini or champagne glasses. Pour the champagne-cream mixture gently over the raspberries, and place the glasses in the refrigerator to set for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Put 1 cup raspberries and 2 tablespoons sugar in a blender and purée until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve and set coulis aside. Just before serving, when the panna cotta has set, pour a little coulis over the top to cover the surface completely, and decorate the surface with remaining raspberries.