Halloween Inspired: Ghostly île Flottantes

A floating poached egg white amongst a pond of creamy vanilla crème anglaise, topped with a crunchy caramel shard - decorated as a ghost of course.

This truly is a fancy dessert and really quite simple to make, with a pinch of patience. So why don't you try this out and stun your Halloween party guests with this ghostly version? It's cute, it's tasty and definitely fits in with a scary theme.

île flottante has been one of those desserts I've been wanting to make for a long while but just hadn't got round to it. Whilst wondering what I could make for halloween without using the usual ingredients, such as pumpkin, the thought of making spooky floating islands literally just popped into my head.

But what are île flottantes I hear you ask! Well, french for floating islands (I didn't just randomly mention islands earlier for no reason incase any of you were confused) is a very well composed dessert should I say. It's usually made up of three components, each of which emit complimentary textures with every mouthful you have. It's absolutely brilliant. You get the smooth cold creaminess from the crème anglaise and then this light, almost melting, meringuey, moussey, marshmallowy even, taste along with a satisfying crunchy caramel topping that I believe is vital to finish the dish off with. 

So you think you want to have a go? Let me tell you how it was made then!

Ingredients:
Crème Anglaise:
300ml milk
80ml double cream
3 drops of vanilla bean paste/1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
70g caster sugar
4 large egg yolks

For the meringue:
4 large egg whites
100g caster sugar
4 drops lemon juice

Caramel topping:
80g caster sugar

Poaching liquid:
500ml milk
500ml water
2 tablespoons sugar

Decoration:
Googley eyes/marshamallow
Black food colouring paste

Method:

• For the crème anglaise, add the milk, cream and vanilla paste in a saucepan and let it simmer on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, do not let it boil.
• Meanwhile in a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until it turns pale in colour.
• Slowly pour in about two tablespoons of the hot milk mixture and whisk away. Keep adding the milk slowly while whisking away to incorporate the eggs and to avoid it turning into a scrambled omelette!
• Put this back on the heat and stir continuously until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of the spoon. Do not leave the saucepan or the creme anglaise will split if not stirred and over heated!
• Strain the mixture into a bowl using a sieve and leave to cool, then refrigerate. 

Poaching liquid:

• Combine the milk and water in a large pan and add the sugar until it dissolves. Make sure the liquid doesn't boil as it will ruin the outcome of the meringues.

Meringues:

• Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl and add 3 drops of lemon juice.
• Gradually add the sugar a tablespoon at a time and whisk until its thick and glossy and stiff peaks form.
• Using 2 large serving spoons, shape the egg whites in an oval shape. To add heigh and make them as 'ghosts' use a serving spoon and a spatula (or butter knife) and keep adding egg white at the top of the oval and smoothen it out with the spatula. I made mine quite big and were harder to poach because of the shape, but you can make your smaller.
• Poach the whites for around 4-5 minutes until stiff and cooked and then turn them over for the same time. Any longer and they tend to collapse!
• Remove them from the pan and place on some baking paper or a wire rack to drain them off.

Caramel:

• Put the sugar in a saucepan and heat until melted and golden brown in colour. Be sure to keep an eye out so it doesn't burn.
• Drizzle over a piece of baking paper and leave to set. 

To assemble:

• Pour some creme anglaise into a bowl (i used spoon rests just to achieve a different look) and place the smaller flat side of the poached egg white on top. Add the googley eyes at the top - if you don't have these don't worry. Cut out two small circles from marshmallows and paint with black food colouring paste and leave to dry. Make sure they're dry or they will run onto your meringue! 
• For the mouthes i used black food colouring paste and lighlt dabbed them onto the back of a palette knife and made a roundish mouth shape.
• Peel off the caramel shards and add on top.

Your ghostly île flottantes are ready to be eaten now!

Any issues, feel free to drop me an email. Happy Halloween everyone :) 

Dainty Cook x

The PannEgg (Easter inspired)

A vanilla panna cotta with a mango jelly bulb, mango gel sauce and a chocolate ganache shard, or soldier in this case.
 N-to-the-ommy!



Is it an egg? Is it a spoon? (I don't know about that one, k) No, why it's panna cotta of course.

As you can see this is a slightly late post, but hey, have a go next easter, or whenever really. It can really puzzle your friends!

I'd grown slightly tired of the chocolate eggs you get everywhere. I mean, let's face it, chocolate alone, is NOT dessert. It can be part of one, certainly, but I was on my tippy toes to make a sweet dish that resembled an egg and not entirely made of chocolate.
 Thus: the Pann-Egg was laid.

See what I did there?!

Let me just tell you how I made it ...

Ingredients:

Vanilla Panna cotta:
600ml double cream
160ml full fat milk
4tsp (halal) gelatine powder
180g caster sugar
4tsp vanilla extract

Mango jelly bulb:
250ml alphonso mango purée
1&1/2tsp gelatine powder
3 tbsps double cream

Chocolate ganache shard:
75g dark chocolate
25ml double cream

Method:
For the panna cotta:
Dissolve the gelatine powder into 125ml of hot water and stir quickly.
Combine the cream, milk, vanilla extract and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat.
Stir in the gelatine mixture and turn off the heat.
Pour the mixture into small ramekins or moulds, leave to cool then whack 'em all the fridge so that they set. It usually takes 4 hours and more to set properly.
To serve, dip the ramekin into hot water, slide the sides out with a knife and turn upside down onto a plate.

Mango bulbs:
For these I used the lids of the cake pop moulds to form the bulb.
Dissolve 1 - 1&1/2 tsps of gelatine powder into 60ml of hot water.
Mix the gelatine and puree together and then take out some tablespoons of the puree and set aside.
With the remaining mixture, add roughly 3 tablespoons of double cream and stir. Pour this into the cake pop moulds and refrigerate!
Onnce set (it will still be wobbly/soft so you need to use a spoon to scoop the bulbs out) plonk them on top of the panna cotta to form an egg!

Chocolate soldiers:
Cut out rectangles (7x3cm) of greaseproof paper.
Melt the chocolate, add in the cream and stir.
Paint the greaseproof paper with the ganache and leave to set in the fridge until firm. Once they're done all you do is peel them off carefully.



To serve, place it on plate with the panna cotta, use the remaining puree that was set a side as the sauce and ba boom. You've got you're a nice plate of a PanEgg.



It's amazing. No yolk ;)


Dainty Cook x