French · Dessert
Ile Flottante
Poached meringue islands adrift on vanilla anglaise under caramel threads — the grandmother dessert that still stops a dining salon
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- Crème anglaise: whole milk — 500 ml
- Vanilla pod — 1
- Egg yolks — 6 (120 g)
- Caster sugar — 80 g
- Meringue: egg whites — 6 (180 g)
- Caster sugar — 100 g
- Fine salt — 1 g
- Caramel: caster sugar — 100 g; water 30 ml
- Toasted flaked almonds — 30 g
Method
- Anglaise: infuse split vanilla in milk at 85 °C, 15 min. Whisk yolks with 80 g sugar; temper with the milk; return and stir to 83 °C — nappe stage. Strain; chill over ice.
- Whip whites with salt to soft peaks; rain in 100 g sugar; whip to glossy, firm-but-supple peaks.
- Poach: barely simmering water (or milk) at 85 °C — scoop large quenelles, poach 90 sec per side. They swell, then settle.
- Drain the islands on a cloth; chill 30 min.
- Caramel: cook sugar and water to amber; cool 1 min until it ribbons off a spoon.
- Pour anglaise into shallow bowls; float an island on each.
- Thread caramel over in fast zigzags; scatter almonds. Serve within the hour.