Meringue Islands in English Cream (Snowy Eggs)

The name of this dessert will leave you as enamored as its delicious flavor and texture: floating meringue in custard and caramel . How do you feel? You may also hear it referred to as "snowy eggs." This is an original French recipe, floating islands made with meringue and arranged on a custard base. To accompany and give them flavor, we will pour a delicious caramel sauce on top.

It is a delicious recipe, very obvious and you will be surprised at how easy it is to make.

As I said, the islands are meringues, so you will basically need beaten egg whites and sugar. We will flavour them with vanilla, whose flavour will be enhanced by the vanilla-flavored custard.

For the cream we will use the egg yolks, so we will use both parts of the egg for each preparation of the recipe. Don't throw anything away because you will use it all for a great dessert recipe!

Loqy De Buyer Range

So, with this delicious recipe, we welcome the new Loqy De Buyer range, which consists of the brand's most desired pieces (the Mineral B iron frying pan, the Choc non-stick frying pan, the Alchimy saucepan and frying pan...), all of them just as we know them but without a handle, because they have a removable one, so you can better organize your kitchen and easily turn a frying pan into a paella pan, a sauté pan into a saucepan... I strongly encourage you to take a look at it because it is fabulously practical, with a great quality body and certainly a handle (that gorgeous removable handle fits perfectly!), you will find it here .

Ingredients

For the floating meringue islands:

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

For the custard:

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

For the caramel sauce:

150 g powdered sugar
150 ml of liquid cooking cream

Preparation

We prepare the egg whites:

1. Separate the egg 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 up" the egg whites, and begin to beat with a whisk, whipping them to insufflate some air (they don't have to be very firm).
3. When they start to rise, add 1/3 of the sugar (about 30-35 g of sugar), and continue beating vigorously (if you use a KitchenAid, you can use the whisk attachment at speed 8).
4. Add the rest of the sugar and continue beating until you have firm egg whites.

We poach the meringues:

1. Place a saucepan or sauté pan on the heat (we used the Loqy sauté pan to give it a try), add the milk and vanilla extract and allow to heat over low heat.
2. Let's make the meringue islands: Using a spoon or ladle, take a portion of the meringue you have prepared, which will separate easily when it is firm, and with the help of another spoon, pour that spoonful of meringue into the milk. Note: it may be easier to give the meringues a rounder shape if you use a ladle, lightly oiled so that it can be easily removed.
3. Continue forming islands of meringue in the milk until all the previously whipped egg whites are used up.
4. Let the meringue simmer for 3 to 5 minutes in the boiling milk (depending on the size of the islands you made).
5. After this time, remove the meringue islands with a skimmer, drain the milk and set the poached meringues aside on a plate lined with kitchen paper or a cotton cloth.
6. Once the meringues are removed, set aside the vanilla milk.

We prepare the custard

1. Strain the vanilla milk you used earlier to remove any meringue that may have formed and put it in an Alchimy Loqy saucepan . You'll 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 of vanilla extract to bring back the vanilla flavour of the milk).
2. Place the saucepan on the heat and heat without bringing it to a boil.
3. Meanwhile, put the reserved yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and mix until combined and white.
4. Pour a few tablespoons of the hot milk into the bowl, so that it warms up a bit without the yolks curdling (keep stirring), and then pour the whitened yolks into the saucepan with the milk, gradually. Keep stirring with a whisk or spatula. You should reach 84°C (no more, don't let it boil at any time). The process will be quick, keep stirring: once it reaches that temperature, turn off the heat, stir a little more and set aside.

Preparation of the caramel sauce:

1. Place the Alchimy stainless steel pan on the heat and spread the sugar over the entire bottom of the pan. You will see that at some point it starts to melt, you can gradually add the rest of the sugar, in the form of a "rain". You can turn the pan slightly, holding it by the handle, but above all do not insert any utensil or it will crystallize.
3. When the sugar turns a blond color, pour in the hot cream to stop the cooking, and let it cook for 3 minutes over low heat, whisking lightly.
4. Keep the caramel at room temperature (it must cool down before pouring over the meringue).

Preparation of the dish:

1. In a nice bowl, pour a ladle of custard.
2. Add a ball of meringue in the center, and pour caramel sauce on top.
3. Enjoy!

Grades

• It is very interesting to use the De Buyer Alchimy stainless steel saucepan and frying pan in these preparations, because we must control the temperature well: keep it on low heat, be able to turn it up to add heat when we want and, above all, when it reaches a certain temperature, turn off the heat and the pan and saucepan react quickly to this change in temperature to stop cooking and prevent the temperature of the milk or caramel from rising any further in each case. A good frying pan, with the density of its diffusing base, as is the case with Alchimy, helps us 100% with this control.
• Worcestershire sauce is similar to custard, but if you look closely, it doesn't include cornstarch in its ingredients and is very liquid. Don't expect it to thicken like custard does. The idea is to have a vanilla liquid base, to enjoy with each spoonful along with the meringue.