I know that it may look like a hockey puck, squat and gently rounded, but I assure you that is where the similarities end. What I have instead is a light, eggless Italian custard– a panna cotta. Wobbly, chilled, resting calmly and waiting to be gobbled up, this panna cotta was enriched with buttermilk, giving it a subtle tang.

What to do with leftover buttermilk setting in the fridge? Make a delicious dessert that highlights the buttermilk of course. I love the simplicity of panna cotta. Vanilla, pure and unadulterated was the main flavor in this dessert. A little milk, some sugar, a bit of gelatin, and plenty of buttermilk– it doesn’t sound like much, and it’s not. But when mixed together, the vanilla playing off of the richness of the buttermilk, the gentle jiggle of the gelatin, the cooling presence of the custard, all of the ingredients make for one stellar dessert.

Not one to leave well enough alone, I felt that the panna cotta could be gilded a bit. It needed a sauce, both for color and flavor. I returned to the fridge, and pulled out some freshly squeezed orange juice. Sweetened with a small amount of sugar, I set the O.J. in a shallow pan on the stove and boiled the juice down, until a rich, viscous, syrup was obtained. After unmolding the cooled panna cotta from their ramekins, I spooned some of the nectar onto the dessert plate.

Unwittingly, I had made something that tasted exactly like a creamsicle! The milky goodness of the panna cotta, along with the tart concentration of the orange juice– when I closed my eyes, lifting a bite of dessert to my lips, I was transported back to summer camp and those popsicles– the shock of orange enveloping the sweet iced milk. This adult creamsicle, or buttermilk panna cotta with orange sauce, call it what you will, I would happily eat again.