Floating Island Dessert

What is Floating Island Dessert?

A floating island, also known as île flottante in French,  is a French dessert made of a vanilla custard topped with sweet whipped egg whites cooked in a bain-marie.

The whipped egg white floats onto the custard and looks like a floating island.

The floating island dessert toppings are often a drizzle of caramel sauce, sliced almonds, or coconut.

How To Make A Floating Island Dessert

A floating island dessert requires some patience and cooking skills, but it’s pretty easy to make if you follow the tips and steps below.

Ingredients for Ile Flottante

An Ile Flottante, as French people call this dessert, is a two-step recipe using only 4 simple ingredients.

All you need to make this lovely French island dessert recipe are:

• Large Eggs – Separated, you need to split egg yolk from egg white to make this French dessert recipe.
• Full-Fat Milk – You can use trim milk instead of whole milk, but the custard won’t be as rich, thick, and creamy. It’s possible to use heavy cream, but it makes the custard a tad too thick to my liking.
• Granulated Sweetener of Choice –  the original recipe uses white sugar. If you want to make a sugar-free version of this dessert, use erythritol or allulose, it works as well.
• Vanilla Extract or seeds from a fresh vanilla bean.

Making The Light Vanilla Custard

The light vanilla custard, also called crème anglaise, is the base of any good French Island dessert. It’s prepared like custard, but its texture is slightly thinner and runnier like cream.

So first, prepare the light vanilla custard. If you have never made a custard before, it’s not complicated, but it requires precision.

First, split the egg yolks from the egg whites. Set aside the egg whites in a bowl at room temperature for later in the recipe.

In the bowl with egg yolks, add sugar. Then, beat them with an electric beater at high speed until whiter in color and fluffy – it takes about 1 minute.

Set this aside.

Heating The Milk

In a saucepan, under medium heat up the milk and vanilla, and bring to a light boil. Remove the milk mixture from the heat.

Now the tricky part is to add the hot milk into the beaten egg slowly to avoid ‘cooking’ the eggs.

So first, temper the eggs by adding one tablespoon of the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk vigorously to combine.

Repeat this step one more time.

Now that the eggs are tempered, pour the egg mixture from the bowl into the saucepan.

Return the pan to medium-low heat (no boil!), constantly stir until the custard thickens, and coats the back of a spoon or spatula.

If the custard has a few lumps, you can pass it through a fine mesh sieve.

Cool the custard sauce at room temperature in a large bowl. Then, film the bowl with plastic wrap, making sure the wrap touches the custard, and refrigerate.

Poaching Meringue

The best part of Floating Island dessert is the fluffy cloudy meringues on top! To make these, you need:

• A pot with boiled water.
• Egg whites – the ones you split at the beginning of the recipe.

First, bring one liter of water to a boil in a large saucepan.

Cover, and reduce heat to a very light boil. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat egg white on high speed for about 45 seconds or until they start to firm up.

Stop the beater, add sugar and keep beating until a stiff peak forms. You can also use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, but you have to be extremely careful as overbeating is much more likely.

Now, uncover the saucepan and scoop out some stiffed egg white – about 1/4 cup of drop it onto the light boiling water.

Use a skimmer to plunge the egg white, and cook for 30 seconds on each side.

Finally, drain the cooked poached meringue with a slotted spoon, place it on a plate and leave to cool.

Some people also love to plunge the cooked egg whites into a bowl of cold water. This is up to you depending on how you want to serve this dessert – lukewarm or cold.

Repeat until all the egg whites are cooked.

Assembling the Floating Island

There are two ways to serve this floating island recipe:

• Cold – Store the custard and cooked poached eggs in the fridge in an airtight container for a few hours before serving.
• Lukewarm – Some French restaurants serve the custard cold with lukewarm poached eggs. In this case, prepare the custard a few hours or the day before serving.

French Floating Island Toppings

A French Floating Island is always served in individual serving bowls and topped with a garnish:

• Raspberries or strawberries
• Sliced almonds or chopped pistachios
• Coconut
• A drizzle of homemade caramel sauce