Floating Island (Oeufs A La Neige)

In this case a dessert, not a real ocean island. I had this dessert one night in Paris( sounds so nice just to say it, this Paris thing!) at the Le Montparnasse 1900 Restaurant. Art Noveau everything in all it’s glory. Big names and painters were hanging out there at the turn of the century and today it is a monument to that era.  Dinner was fantastic(thank you Dirk and Odette!) to say the least but the brain-stopping moment came with dessert. It was just so damn good and one of those ones where every morsel just tasted perfect. Don’t know if it was the place or the good company or just the dish or all of the above, it just worked for me and of course I had to make it and had the same experience again! Clearly my kind of food.

A floating island is a French dessert consisting of meringue floating on crème anglaise (a vanilla custard).There is some confusion about the name. In French cuisine, the terms œufs à la neige (“eggs in snow”) and île flottante (floating island) are sometimes used interchangeably; the latter is the source of the English name. The difference between the two dishes is that île flottante sometimes contains islands made of “alternate layers of alcohol-soaked dessert biscuits and jam but generally speaking the dessert is just called floating island.

Herewith the recipe for my little islands of wonder as I found it on Allrecipes.com and it tastes perfect, just like in Paris!

3 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar, divided

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toasted almond flakes to spinkle just before serving

 Separate two of the eggs. In top of double boiler, combine 1 whole egg and 2 yolks with 1/4 cup sugar and the salt, whisking until smooth. Whisk in the milk and cook over simmering water, stirring constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon. When the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove it from the heat. (Do not boil. If custard should start to curdle, remove from heat and beat vigorously until smooth.) Pour the custard through a strainer into a bowl and stir in the vanilla extract. Cool and refrigerate.(i did not strain the custard and it was perfect).

In a heat-proof bowl, lightly whisk the 2 egg whites with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, just enough to dissolve the sugar. Place the bowl on top of a pot of simmering water and stir constantly until the temperature of the whites reaches 145 degrees F (63 C) or hotter. (I did not have a thermometer and it just tested the heat on my hand, luke warm is the right moment to take the next step).

Immediately remove the bowl from the heat, and use an electric mixer to beat the warm egg whites until they form stiff, glossy peaks.

Pour the chilled custard into a serving dish. Drop the meringue by heaping tablespoons onto the custard to make islands. Chill before serving.

Sprinkle with toasted almon flakes before serving. It is so easy and can be made the night before a dinner party to save time on the day.

I found these translations on the interwebs

Afrikaans: drywende eilande/ sneeu eiers

French : île flottante, œufs à la neige

German : Schnee-Eier (“snow eggs”)

Polish : zupa nic

Austrian : Kanarimilch

Hungarian : madártej (“bird’s milk”)

Croatian : schneenockerln, šnenokle

Romanian : lapte de pasăre (“bird’s milk”)

Italian : uova alla neve, uova di neve

Spanish : isla flotante

Portuguese: forofa

Russian Napoleon Cake – Family Challenge Part 2

What with my obsessive compulsive following of the Oscar Pistorius saga this week, I almost forgot to finish the Russian challenge blog. RIP Reeva.

The dessert on the evening of my Russian Plov night was this Napoleon Cake with a lot of short cuts. The original cake is of course made with home made dough but us mere mortals with limited time look for recipes that work fast, very fast…..

The recipe is from http://www.russianbites.com and is simply layers of puff pastry with custard creme (creme patisserie)  in between.

Bake squares (4 or more) of puff pastry at 180 C and cool down.

Make custard as follows: ( I would not use store bought custard as you need a thick custard).

1 1/4 cups full cream milk

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/8th cup flour

2T plus 2 t cornstarch

In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam. While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.

Once the milk is steaming, add half of it, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture. Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk, continue stirring, and heat it for 1-2 minutes, until the custard is very thick. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and chill before filling pastry.

I added grated orange peel for an orangy taste and flaked puff pastry on the top layer.