floating islands

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When you make a commitment to bake a recipe every single week, some of those weeks are by necessity going to be half-assed. It’s not that I’m any less interested in floating islands than any other dessert – it sounds tasty, and it’s definitely not something I have experience with – it just happens that this week I have another dessert project that dominating my attention right now.

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Floating islands are meringues that have been poached in milk and are served with crème anglaise. It wasn’t that I skimped too much on the effort involved; it’s just that I decided to use only one egg. That means I made a quarter of the meringue recipe and one sixth of the crème anglaise.

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None of this recipe was very difficult, although the work involved with multi-component desserts always seems to add up. The only portion I had any problem with was the poaching, and most of that was because I didn’t carefully read the instructions that warn you that the meringues will deflate after poaching. I thought I had screwed them up, so I ate one while I poached the rest.

I served the floating islands with berry coulis. Dave and I both thought that the dessert was really good. It would be even better with some fresh berries. I’ll have to try that next time. Shari has the recipe posted.

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Comments

  1. pinkstripes says:

    Your floating islands look great! I can’t believe you only used one egg!

  2. That looks lovely! Too much math involved. I always end up making a full batch of things.

  3. They look beautiful!

  4. Even half-assed this looks elegant and delicious 🙂 I guess people were kind of unenthused or underwhelmed, but I think it’s a good break from the usual 🙂

  5. Gorgeous!!

  6. Your photos are so gorgeous! I love the plate in the last picture!

  7. Looks beautiful as always! 🙂 The fresh berries definitely work well with this!

  8. I love that photo of the spoon on the black background. Looks lovely! I’m so glad you squeezed in time to make this dessert!

  9. Very nice! What’s the texture like? I can’t really tell by the photograph, but if I were making these I would want a crispy meringue soaked in silky coulis.

  10. The presentation is amazing!!

  11. Very creative! I love your pictures and the different ways that you present you islands.. I thought this dessert was great!

  12. Hehe, I did the same thing. One egg meant a lot less time over the simmering milk poaching things, and a lot less hassle. Berry coulis sounds fabulous with this – it would lighten things up nicely.