TWD: Floating Islands
I had planned to make these for Valentines as Lenny loves them! In fact, whenever I ask about his favorite desserts this is the only one he mentions. Shari of Whisk: a food blog beat me to it as she picked this fablous recipe for our weekly Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) challenge.
The recipe starts with making a Creme Anglaise, which is a light pouring custard. It is made with milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla flavoring. I decided to skip the vanilla extract and add a split vanilla bean to the milk while it simmered. I love the dark speckles floating in the finished creme not to mention the very intense flavor of fresh vanilla.
While the custard was chilling I made the floating islands. Dorie’s recipe was basically egg whites with a little sugar. I normally add a bit of cream of tartar which helps them hold up a bit more. Since this recipe did not call for it, I did not add it. Instead I made my meringues extra big, which was a good idea, as when I removed them from the simmering milk they deflated quite a bit. Tip, save the slightly sweet milk and use in your coffee.
The recipe called for the option a drizzling of caramel, we went for it. I did decide to cook it a little longer then the recipe stated as we love burnt caramel. With the smell of vanilla, frothy milk and burnt sugar lingering in the house, we could not hold out and ate the dish slightly warm. Even though it is better when served a bit colder, we were not complaining as we licked the spoons and bowls clean. This is an easy recipe that tastes fantastic! Sultry creamy custard and comfortable caramel teasing your taste-buds. We may be eating this again on Valentines!
Be sure to check out all the other TWD Floating Islands as well!
I am glad you liked it! The photo is absolutely gorgeous! How did you get your caramel to drizzle like that! I had to play connect-the-dots with mine!
we loved this one, it was delicious. your picture is beautiful.
Great presentation! Those would be a fabulous dessert for a dinner party.
Wow. I have never seen this before. They look amazing! Next time I make mayo I will save the egg whites for this instead of making doggie omelettes.
Wow, look at that caramel. Gorgeous! I’m glad you enjoyed the floating islands.
Wow, you really make something impressive sound easy! I wish I had made this one…maybe this weekend.
I’m so glad you made them and liked them! Thanks for baking along with me this week! BTW, I love your new look!
ok, see..now YOU know how to drizzle caramel. It was my first outing making caramel, and it started to get hard quickly, so I just threw it over the top with my fork, and it came out looking haphazard and random, in a not so attractive way…but the taste of these…oh the taste..it made up for any messy caramel placement!
Looks gorgeous! Never had something like this before though. Will finally get my copy of Dorie’s book when I come there the next month!
Good call with the extra caramel. It looks wonderful in the bowl… makes me wish I’d tried the caramel.
I love all the caramel, looks great
I love how your island turned out and that caramel looks really good! I hope you enjoyed this dessert as much as I did!
This is one of my favourites, too. Your caramel looks perfect- I love how it’s all over the plate; it looks really neat.
YOur island is beautiful. Glad it worked for you.
These look wonderful! The caramel looks divine.
This is like pure elegant comfort food! Glad you went for it with the caramel, no need to hold back!
I love reading your site and your carmel drizzle is amazing. Totally loved this weeks recipe. Yea Shari! Glad you did too.
AmyRuth
I love floating islands and never thought of the caramel.