An easy and quick recipe which uses ingredients that you might already have in your kitchen: eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla bean or extract. These adorable floating islands look fancy and are an easy way to impress your guests, despite being pretty simple to make!

Îles flottantes can be sweet or savory. The basic concept involves egg whites whipped and shaped into meringue islands, floating on a sauce or soup.

The dessert version we’re making here uses crème anglaise for the sauce. ‘Crème anglaise’, which literally means English cream, is a sweet custard used as a dessert sauce. It is a mix of sugar, egg yolks, and hot milk usually flavored with vanilla beans or extract. Based on preferences, it can be flavored with lemon or orange instead of vanilla. Crème anglaise can be served with many different desserts, like brownie or chocolate cake.

This dessert uses both the egg whites and yolks. The yolks are used to make creme anglaise, while the whites are used to make our little floating islands, which are called “blancs en neige” in French, which roughly translates to “snow-like egg whites”.

The egg whites will be whipped with a couple spoons of sugar, then shaped and poached in a pot of boiling water for a minute.

We will be preparing this dessert in two steps. We will make the ‘crème anglaise’ first so that it can cool down and sit in the fridge while we make the ‘blancs en neige’ and the caramel sauce.

INGREDIENTS FOR ÎLE FLOTTANTE

• Milk
• Vanilla bean (or vanilla extract)
• Eggs
• Sugar
• Sliced almonds (optional for serving)

DIRECTIONS FOR ÎLE FLOTTANTE

Make the crème anglaise

1. Pour the milk in a large pot.
2. Cut the vanilla bean in two lengthwise and extract the vanilla bean pods using the tip of the knife. Add the pods and the bean halves to the pot of milk.
   Note: if you are using vanilla extract, add 1 to 2 teaspoons to the pot. The quantity depends on how concentrated your extract is- check on the bottle to find this information.
3. Place the pot on the stove and heat on medium-high for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon or spatula. After 5 minutes, turn heat down to medium and cook for another 5 minutes to let the milk infuse with the vanilla bean and pods.
4. After 5 minutes, remove from heat and let sit on the counter to cool down.
5. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. We will use all of the yolks and half of the whites. The egg whites for the recipe can go directly in the bowl of a stand mixer, if you are using one. Discard or save the other half of the whites for another recipe.
6. In the bowl containing the yolks, whisk in the 70 grams of sugar until getting a smooth texture.
7. Add the milk into the egg bowl using a metal sieve- this is to remove the vanilla pod and any clumps. Whisk until well combined.
8. Transfer the milk/egg mix into the pot used to heat up the milk. Place the pot on the stove and heat on medium-low heat. Keep stirring with a spatula at all time!
   It will take about 10 minutes for your ‘crème anglaise’ to thicken. Your crème can quickly burn and fail if you stop stirring, even for just 30 seconds.
   Notes:
   1) Ideally, your crème anglaise should reach 82-84 degrees Celsius (179-183 degrees Fahrenheit) toward the end of the 10 minutes- this will assure the perfect thickness.
   2) Using a whisk here would add air into the mixture and we do want this.
9. Once the crème anglaise has reached the desired thickness, remove from heat, transfer to a bowl, and set aside. Once it has cooled down (15-20 minutes), place in the fridge for at least an hour.
   Note: I like to prepare my crème anglaise a few hours before serving so that it is very cold by that time.

Make the meringue islands

1. Using a stand mixer (or a hand mixer), beat the egg whites on high speed.
2. After a couple minutes, add in a tablespoon of sugar while beating. After another couple minutes, add in the second tablespoon of sugar.
3. Once firm peaks form, stop beating and bring to boil a large pot of water.
4. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to the point where it is boiling gently.
5. Shape a little “island” of egg whites using two spoons or a laddle and place on top of the hot water. Poach for 30 seconds on each side. Then remove the pot and place on a plate covered with paper towel (to absorb the extra water).
   Note: watch our Youtube video to see how I shape my islands.
6. Repeat until you have poached a total of 4 “islands” (or more if you are making more than 4 servings).

Assemble and serve

1. In small bowls, ramequins, or specialty cocktail glasses (like these): pour or ladle in the crème anglaise, then gently place the islands on top.
2. Optional: sprinkle some sliced almonds and drizzle some caramel on top just before serving.

RECIPE VIDEO