Meringue islands in crème anglaise (snow eggs)

The name of this dessert will leave you as in love as its delicious flavor and texture: floating meringue on custard and caramel. How do you feel? You might also hear it called "snow eggs". This is an original French recipe, îles flottantes, made from meringue and served on a base of custard. To accompany and flavor them, we'll pour a delicious caramel sauce over the top.

It's a delicious, very showy recipe and you'll be surprised how easy it is to make.

As mentioned, the islands are meringues, so you'll basically need egg whites beaten with sugar. We'll flavor them with vanilla, whose taste will be reinforced by the custard, also vanilla-flavored.

For the custard we'll use the egg yolks, so we'll use both parts of the egg for each preparation in the recipe. Don't throw anything away because you'll use it all for an amazing dessert recipe!

Loqy De Buyer range

So, with this delicious recipe, we welcome the new Loqy De Buyer range, consisting of the brand's most coveted pieces (the Mineral B iron frying pan, the nonstick Choc, the Alchimy saucepan and frying pan...), all exactly as we know them but without a handle, because they have and share a detachable one, so you can organize your kitchen better and easily turn a frying pan into a paella pan, a sauté into a saucepan... I strongly encourage you to take a look because it's fabulously practical, with excellent body quality and, without a doubt, handle quality (That gorgeous detachable handle fits perfectly!), hereyou'll find it.

Ingredients

For the floating meringue islands:

4 egg whites (with a pinch of salt)
100 g powdered sugar
1/2 liter whole milk
1 vanilla pod

For the custard:

1/2 liter whole milk
1 vanilla pod
4 egg yolks
100 g powdered sugar

For the caramel sauce:

150 g powdered sugar
150 ml cooking cream

Preparation

Prepare the egg whites:

1. Separate the whites from the yolks. Reserve the yolks in a bowl for later.
2. In a bowl, combine the egg whites and salt, and beat lightly, just to "break" the whites, then start whipping with a whisk to incorporate some air (they don't need to be very stiff).
3. When they start to rise, add 1/3 of the sugar (about 30–35 g of sugar), and continue beating vigorously (if you do it with a KitchenAid, you can use the balloon whisk attachment at speed 8).
4. Gradually add the rest of the sugar, and keep beating until you have firm whites.

Poach the meringues:

1. Set a Shallow Casserole or a sauté pan over the heat (we used the Loqy sauté pan for its first run), add the milk and vanilla extract, and let it warm over low heat.
2. We will form the meringue islands: with a spoon or a ladle, take a portion of the meringue you prepared, which will detach easily when firm, and with the help of another spoon pour that spoonful of meringue into the milk. Note: it may be easier to give a rounder shape to the meringues if you use a ladle, lightly oiled so it releases without issue.
3. Form meringue islands in the milk until you use up all the previously whipped whites.
4. Let the meringue poach for 3 to 5 minutes in the boiling milk (depending on the size of the islands you made).
5. After that time, remove the meringue islands with a slotted spoon, let the milk drain and place the poached meringues on a plate lined with paper towels or a cotton cloth.
6. Once the meringues are removed, reserve the vanilla milk.

Prepare the custard

1. Pass the vanilla milk you used previously through a sieve to remove any possible meringue, and put it in a Alchimy Loqy saucepan. You need about 500 ml of milk — if you don't have enough, add whole milk until you reach that amount (if you've added a lot of milk, you can also add half a teaspoon more vanilla extract to recover the milk's vanilla flavor).
2. Place the pan on the heat and warm without bringing to a boil.
3. Meanwhile, place the reserved yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and mix until combined and pale.
4. Pour a few tablespoons of the hot milk into the bowl so the yolks take some temperature without curdling (don't stop mixing), then pour those pale yolks into the pan with the milk gradually. Do not stop stirring with a whisk or spatula. You should reach 84°C (no more, do not let it boil at any time). The process will be quick, keep stirring: once it reaches that temperature, stop the heat, stir a little more and set aside.

Preparation of the caramel sauce:

1. Place the Alchimy stainless frying pan on the heat, and spread sugar over the entire bottom of the pan. You'll see that at some point it begins to melt; you can gradually add the rest of the sugar in a "rain". You can tilt the pan slightly by its handle, but above all do not introduce any utensil or it will crystallize.
3. When the sugar takes a blond color, pour in the hot cream to stop the cooking, and let it cook for 3 minutes over low heat, stirring lightly.
4. Reserve the caramel at room temperature (it should cool before pouring over the meringue).

Plating:

1. In a pretty bowl, pour a ladle of custard.
2. Add a meringue mound in the center, and pour caramel sauce over the top.
3. Enjoy!

Notes

• It's very useful to use the Alchimy stainless De Buyer saucepan and frying pan in these preparations because we must control the temperature well: keep on low heat, be able to raise it to add heat when needed and, above all, when it reaches a certain temperature to stop the heat so the pan and saucepan react quickly to that change to stop cooking and prevent the temperature of the milk or caramel from rising further in each case. A good pan, with the density of its diffusing base as is the case with Alchimy, helps 100% with that control.
• Crème anglaise is similar to pastry cream, but note it does not include cornstarch in its ingredients and remains very liquid. Do not expect it to thicken like pastry cream. The idea is to provide a vanilla-flavored liquid base to enjoy in each spoonful along with the meringue.