Isles Flottant, or Floating Islands

The Trials of Poaching Meringue

Floating Islands are a wonderful mix of texture: light meringue, rich crème anglaise and crunchy spun sugar.  A simple and elegant dessert, they can be tricky to make but well worth the effort!

Îles Flottantes

In the interest of full-disclosure I'll tell you, my first attempt at Floating Islands went a little sideways. I had decided to patch together two different recipes from memory to see if I could pull this off "free-hand"... In the end, I did okay but not perfect.

An old friend's voice kept ringing in my head: "Perfect is the enemy of good." Wise words. An unrepentant Type-A personality, I try and remind myself of this often.

More importantly, my Floating Islands tasted amazing so who really cares about perfect anyway?

These are the ingredients I used (with notes about where I think I may have gone wrong).

• 4 eggs, separated (the whites are for the meringue, the yolks are for the Crème Anglaise)

• 70 g of superfine sugar (this is for the meringue, and I think I should have used 100g)

• 2…