Île Flottante

Date Completed: 1/16-17/2022

I knew I had to make this recipe as soon as I saw it in the dessert chapter of Barefoot in Paris. It’s perfectly over-the-top, and Ina’s description of her friends practically licking their dessert plates had me hooked. It must be delicious!

We tackled this one over the course of multiple days, had many caramel adventures, and even invented our very own cookie recipe. Too much fun!

Basically this dessert boils down to a pool of crème anglaise topped with a puffy meringue, caramel-covered almonds, and caramel sauce. Floating islands!

We started the journey by making the crème anglaise. Egg yolks and sugar are beaten together until thick. Ina’s recipe includes cornstarch to prevent the eggs from scrambling while cooking - love that extra peace of mind! You then pour in scalded milk and put the mixture over a burner until it thickens up.

Off-heat, you strain the mixture and add vanilla extract, Cognac, and vanilla bean seeds. Did you know that vanilla bean seeds are extremely clumpy when you add them to a mixture? I did not before but quickly learned. I stood there for several minutes breaking them up with the back of a spoon.

The caramel sauce… You heat up the sugar and water until it starts to darken. You’re supposed to be careful not to get crystals on the side of the pan (this is impossible). Off-heat, you add more water and vanilla while the sauce bubbles like crazy. Then you put it back on the heat and stir until it reaches the right temperature on a candy thermometer.

Everything seemed fine at this point. We were very proud!

Within a few minutes of cooling this sauce started to crystalize. We ended up having to make another batch the following day (which also ended up crystalizing). Failure?! More on that later!

You mix part of the caramel sauce with toasted, slivered almonds to make the praline. We were able to get this done before the sauce crystalized - hooray! This mixture is spread on a pan and baked for a few minutes to harden. Break up into small pieces.

I wish I had baked this slightly less or added more caramel, but it was very yummy!

Last component - the meringues! Or should I say the islands? This is egg whites mixed up with sugar and a few other ingredients until very stiff and glossy. We placed large “mounds” onto a baking sheet and baked for about 20 minutes.

Everything comes together on the plate: pour the crème anglaise first, then place a meringue, crumble the praline over the top and drizzle with caramel sauce.

Taste Report:

I loved all the textures in this dessert! The sauce was runnier than a custard, but still very creamy. The meringue was pillowy with a slightly crisp crust. The praline added a very crunchy element. I can honestly say that I didn’t notice the caramel sauce which was a bummer given the trouble we went to over it.

The sauce had the best vanilla flavor - thank you extract + vanilla bean seeds.

Garrett did come up with an alternate recipe idea. Melted ice cream topped with a toasted marshmallow and store-bought caramel sauce. A “poor man’s” floating island! I don’t think you’d quite be able to use the French Île Flottante name for that one, but I’d eat it if offered. Ha!

I’d make the real version again, but I would absolutely use store-bought caramel sauce!

Mess Report:

Nothing better than a dessert with four individual components to give you multiple rounds of huge messes! Yay!

Leftover Report:

I love when I get to include a leftover report! These floating islands made quite a few interesting leftovers.

First, the dessert itself does terribly leftover. The meringues do not last (at least mine didn’t. They started crying egg white tears). My recommendation would be to make this as a dinner-party dessert when you know many people will be there day-of to eat them all up.

Good news: crème anglaise is the base of ice cream! We took the leftover sauce and threw it in our ice cream maker. Love getting some surprise ice cream to enjoy!

Ah… the ill-fated caramel sauce. So many crystals. In a spark of inspiration, we decided to turn that sugar into cookies! It had the texture of sugar and butter that had already been creamed together, so I figured it would be easy to add some flour, leaveners, and mix-ins. It was! We went with mini chocolate chips and toffee bits.

The cookies baked up so cute! They looked puffy and crackly, and we were so excited!

Upon the first bite, we realized something was just plain weird about the texture of these cookies. They were definitely crispy on the outside but strangely thick and chewy on the inside. They were immediately dubbed “weird cookies” - of course. Despite the strange texture, they really were yummy!

It bothered me that I couldn’t figure out why the texture of my first self-created cookie recipe turned out so strange. After several hours of wondering, it finally hit me.

Even though the crystalized caramel sauce looked like butter and sugar creamed together, the caramel sauce did not include any butter or cream at all. We had accidentally made fat-free cookies. Weird mystery solved!

Despite the weirdness, I’m still very proud of turning our mistake-ridden caramel sauce into a cookie recipe. If you ever find yourself with failed/crystalized caramel on your hands, I present to you:

Weird Cookies

3/4 cup crystalized caramel sauce

1 egg

1-1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1/4 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat the caramel sauce with the egg until combined. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits.

Scoop dough onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on pan for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Like I said - that caramel sauce led us to quite a few adventures!