How to Make Floating Island
A classic French comfort food, Floating islands (or îles flottantes) are meringues poached in custard and topped with a caramel sauce. Below procedure shows you how easy it is to whip up this elegant dinner party dessert.
INGREDIENTS
1. Sauce
• 2 cups whole milk
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
2. Meringues
• 4 large egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups whole milk
3. Caramel
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
Preparation of sauce:
Scrape seeds from vanilla beans and put it in a heavy saucepan. Add beans and milk then cook it over a medium-high heat. Take it out from the stove, cover it and keep aside for 10 minutes.
Stir yolk and sugar in a heavy saucepan until 2 minutes to become thick. And then add warm milk mixture (including beans) to it and stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens and leaves the path on the back of spoon when the finger is drawn across about 9 minutes. Take the custard into a small bowl. Cover it and keep it cool at least 3 hours up to 2 days.
For meringues:
1. Lay the smooth kitchen towel on work surface. Pour milk into the medium skillet pan and heat it until it becomes thick over medium heat.
2. Beat egg whites in an electric mixer until it gets foamy. And then add salt and beat until whites hold soft peaks. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time and beat until the whites become stiff and glossy. Scoop some meringue (about twice the size of an egg) onto the large oval spoon. Using another spoon gently transfer the meringue from spoon to spoon shape the meringue into the oval. Drop the oval into milk quickly shape 2 or 3 meringues and drop each into milk. Stir the meringues for 1 minute. Transfer meringues into a towel (meringues will deflate slightly as they cool).using slotted spoon. Repeat the same process for the total of 12 meringues.
3. Transfer meringues to the waxed-paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours.
For caramel:
1. Stir sugar and 1/4 cup water in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and bring to boil, brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush to dissolve any sugar crystals. Boil until syrup is pale golden color, occasionally swirling the pan, about 6 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Let syrup cool until thick enough to fall from tines of a fork in ribbons, about 8 minutes. (If caramel becomes too thick, rewarm slightly over low heat, stirring constantly.)
2. Serve some sauce into center of each plate. Garnish 2 meringues on each. Dip fork into caramel and wave back and forth over meringues so that caramel comes off in strands that harden like threads, and supply.
This is the famous Floating Islands french recipe dessert.
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