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

Crème-to-the-Brûlée

Vanilla crème brûlée, with strawberry, white chocolate spoons and a smooth salted caramel disc - topped with crunchy honeycomb pieces. 

Mouth watering yet?


I can't deny that this is one of my ultimate fave desserts. The baked creamy goodness that instantly melts on your tongue, exposing its vanilla flavour as it begins to tango with your tastebuds. Oh but the best part, the fun part, cracking the burnt crunchy sugar with your spoon as you begin to dig in. The smooth and the crisp become an unbeatable fusion of textures.

And it's no wonder it's sort of named after these textures - crème brûlée - 'burnt cream' in French, is the most delicious yet simple of desserts to make and here's how I made it:

Ingredients:

For the vanilla crème brûlée:
440ml double cream
100ml full fat milk
55g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod/3tsp good quality vanilla extract
5 egg yolks

White Chocolate spoons:
200g white chocolate chips

(Smooth) Salted Caramel Disc:
80g salted butter
75g soft light brown sugar
75g caster sugar
120ml cream
1/2tsp sea salt
Honeycomb pieces (bought)

Method:

• Combine the double cream, milk and vanilla extract (or a slit vanilla pod) into a saucepan and leave to the side.
• Separate the yolks from the whites and place in a mixing bowl, adding the caster sugar. The separating is probably the only tricky part to this - well I find it a pain to be honest! Then whisk the yolks and sugar together until pale and slightly fluffy.
• Bring the saucepan onto the heat until the sides begin to bubble a bit.
• Gradually with a hand whisk, stir in the hot cream mix into the egg. You'll see it will foam up once done, try get rid of all the foam with a large spoon.
• Pour into ramekins, jars or a big dish and place these in a ban marie filled with boiled water about 1.5-2cm high and pop it into the oven for 30-35 minutes.
• You want the crème brûlée to be slightly wobbly in the middle and not completely set. Place these in the fridge and scatter teaspoon of caster sugar on the top surface and then blowtorch until its burnt! Do this closer to the serving time and pop 'em back in the fridge.

And that's pretty much it! For the additional extras and decoration:
To make the chocolate spoon:

• Melt white chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (water bath) until runny and fill up the spoon moulds, placing them in the fridge.

The smooth salted caramel disc:

• Melt the butter and sugars in a saucepan for 3 minutes or until dissolved, swirling it from time to time.
• Add the cream and sea salt and swirl again - get those hips shaking! I mean, use a wooden spoon to stir the sugar mixture…
• Once amalgamated, taste to check if there's enough salt and then pour into a jug to set!

This makes quite a bit, so you can store it up to a week to use for other nommy desserts. Or you know just to eat with a spoon instead of yer good ol' Ben and Jerry's!

Make a circle onto a serving plate, (I used a cookie cutter) and top with honeycomb pieces. Okay so, I had recently bought some ready made ones from Lakeland and used these, but if you want the homemade recipe check out my Get Loose: Chocolate and Honeycomb Mousse recipe!

That's about it! I added chocolate dots around each component to finish off, as well as a strawberry in each jar, as this creamy concotion goes well with berries and maybe there were some growing in my garden…

Cute little desserts, don't you think?


Dainty Cook x