Floating Islands
Floating Islands, or "Îles flottantes," is a French dessert of softly poached meringues that “float” on a vanilla custard sauce. It’s likely that this traditional farmhouse treat was created in the French countryside to make use of fresh farm eggs and milk.
Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 4-5 seconds
Yield: 2 desserts
Ingredients
4 egg whites at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup frozen raspberries, defrosted
¼ granulated sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup vanilla ice cream, melted (or flavor of your choice)
Methode
Make a French meringue. Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form when the beater is lifted out of the bowl. Once the egg whites reach the soft peak stage, continue whipping and progressively add ½ cup of sugar. Keep whipping until the meringue becomes shiny and stiffer – this is called the ‘hard peak’ stage, and it should take about 5 to 10 minutes.
Microwave the French meringue: place a large spoonful of French meringue on a microwaveable tray and microwave on high for 3 seconds - the meringue will rise a little bit and then deflate. Microwave it again for a 2 to 3 more seconds, then remove it from the microwave. Repeat this process, cooking one spoonful of meringue at a time. Cooking each meringue should take only 4 to 5 seconds, depending on the power of the microwave.
Make a raspberry sauce: put the raspberries, ¼ cup of sugar, and the lemon juice in a blender, then blend until smooth. Pour the mixture through a find mesh strainer, discard seeds, and reserve the sauce.
Plate two desserts: pour a ‘pool’ of the melted vanilla ice cream onto two dessert plates, then place the cooked French meringues on top as the 'islands'. Drizzle some raspberry sauce over the top and serve immediately.
"Dinner is Served. Bon Appetit!" — Chef Patrice Olivon
Nutritional Information: Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 371 Calories; trace Fat (0.1% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 89g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 111mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat; 1 Fruit; 5 Other Carbohydrates.
From: Dinner is Served, a public television series
© 2009 Fresh TV Creative, LLC, All Rights Reserved.
For more information about Chef Patrice and Dinner is Served,
visit www.chefpatrice.tv