TWD: Floating Islands

For this week's edition of Tuesday's with Dorie, Shari of Whisk: a food blog chose Floating Islands.

This French dessert definitely falls in the "woulda-never-tried-this-in-a-million-years-if-not-for-Tuesday's-with-Dorie" category. I've never even heard of such a dessert. But boy, I'm glad I have. What a tasty, unique treat.

It was like a custard soup with sweet clouds of meringue floating about. As you can see, I went the lazy route and used strawberry sauce in place of the recommended caramel drizzle. Talk about delish! Like a deconstructed strawberry ice cream (I got more generous with the strawberry sauce in the post photo-shoot servings.)

The "soup" was creme anglais, which gave me no problems. I made half of a batch, so it got to the right temperature in no time. It wasn't thick-thick, like pasty cream. I assume it was supposed to be somewhat runny.

The meringue clouds... those were so interesting. I had no idea what to expect when poaching them. I half expected them to dissolve before my very eyes.


But, no. (I still can't believe they stayed intact.) I overcooked a few of them - you can see those flat little eggies in the back.


Many, many thanks to Shari for introducing me to this lovely dessert. I really enjoyed making and tasting it. Very delish!


If you'd like to peek at the recipe, maybe even give it a try, see Shari's blog, or check out Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From My Home to Yours".