Floating Island Dessert

Finish your dinner in style with this easy-to-make floating island dessert. It is a foaming meringue floating on a creme Anglaise and sprinkled with caramelized hazelnuts. The dessert is a French classic worth making!

Loved by kids and adults, the floating island (île flottante in French) is one of the quintessential desserts of French cuisine.

If you are looking for a light and fancy sweet treat to finish your dinner party, the floating dessert will serve the purpose.

It also is perfect for serving during Christmas time as a white dessert. Equally, it applies to meringue spheres baked using the same silicone half-sphere molds.

What is floating island dessert?

The floating island is a creamy and melting dessert where the foaming meringue resembling an island floats on a crème Anglaise.

The dessert is also known as oeufs à la neige, meaning "snow eggs" in English.

Why you should try this recipe

The floating Island is a classic French dessert. This rich and creamy treat recipe requires simple ingredients, nothing fancy.

With the make-ahead option, it can be done in advance and refrigerated until ready to assemble. It is perfect if you are looking forward to saving time on the day of serving.

It is also gluten-free, so that everyone will enjoy it regardless of their dietary needs.

Plus, you can serve half-spheres (instead of assembling them into spheres) which makes for a perfect sweet treat for 12 people.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for exact amounts and instructions. I recommend making the recipe as written for the best results.

Sugar: use a superfine type of sugar: caster sugar or baker's sugar, to make the meringue. Process it with a food processor for a few seconds to make granulated white sugar superfine.

Eggs: take whole eggs out of the refrigerator and separate egg whites from egg yolks using an egg separator. Then bring both egg whites and the yolks to room temperature.

Water is used to make sugar syrup while caramelizing nuts.

Hazelnuts: use store-bought roasted hazelnuts or roast nuts yourself in the oven at 355°F or 180°C for 12 minutes. Replace hazelnuts with almonds, pecans, pistachios, or nuts mix.

Butter: the recipe calls for unsalted butter.

Salt enhances the flavor of caramelized nuts. Replace it with fleur de sel if desired.

Milk: use whole milk to make creme Anglaise. To lighten up the dessert, replace it with low-fat milk.

To make it the opposite, to increase the richness of creme Anglaise, replace half of the whole milk with heavy cream.

Vanilla bean: use Madagascar vanilla beans or replace a vanilla bean with one sachet of vanilla sugar.

How to make floating island dessert

To make crème Anglaise, split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds.

Mix egg yolks with scraped seeds of the vanilla pod and sugar using a hand whisk (photo 1).

Place milk in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly.

Bring everything into the saucepan back and cook over low to medium heat for about 7 to 10 minutes, stirring and tracing "8" with a wooden spatula (photo 2). Do not let the custard boil!

Stop cooking just before boiling (using a cooking thermometer, check the temperature that has to be between 179-183°F or 82-84°C). Please don't exceed the custard's temperature of 185°F or 85°C!

If you do not have a cooking thermometer, use the test. Wait until the white foam disappears. If the custard coats the back of a spoon well and holds a trace while drawing your finger across it, creme Anglaise is ready.

Pass it through a fine sieve or chinois strainer into another bowl set over a larger container with ice cubes, so the cooking stops. Cover with plastic film in contact and refrigerate until serving.

Preheat the oven to 355°F or 180°C. To make the meringue, using a stand or electric mixer, beat egg whites at medium speed.

Then increase the speed and continue until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add the caster sugar and whisk to get the glossy meringue with stiff peaks (photo 3).

Using a brush, lightly oil the cavities of the half-sphere molds. Transfer the meringue to a pastry bag fitted with Ateco plain pastry tip 809 and push it into half-spheres.

Or use a large spoon instead, then even top with a bent spatula (photo 4).

Bake for 3 minutes on the middle rack of the oven (no baking sheet is required). Remove the mold from the oven, and let it stand for a few minutes (photo 5).

Turn out the mold onto parchment paper and slightly press each silicone half-sphere to release the baked mounds of meringue (photo 6). Refrigerate until ready to assemble.

To caramelize nuts, roast hazelnuts at 355°F or 180°C for 12 minutes. Place water and sugar in a saucepan and cook till the temperature is 239°F or 115°C.

Add the roasted nuts and caramelize them while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon.

At first, hazelnuts will be covered with sugar syrup (photo 7); then, they will get coated with sugar (photo 8).

Finally, the sugar will start melting and caramelizing, coating the nuts. At this point, add butter and salt, stirring constantly.

Transfer caramelized hazelnuts to parchment paper and let cool (photo 9).

Crush lightly using a food processor (photo 10) and keep in an airtight plastic box.

To serve the dessert, assemble two half-spheres, and roll them into crushed caramelized nuts (photo 11).

Pour crème Anglaise into a serving plate and arrange a meringue sphere over the custard sauce. Sprinkle crushed hazelnuts over crème Anglaise if desired (photo 12).

Recipe variations

There are several versions of the floating island dessert: the different ways to form and cook the meringue and serve it.

Traditionally, the meringue is poached in milk or water. It is an easy version of the French classic called œufs à la neige (snow eggs in English). 

Quenelles are made from the meringue using two tablespoons, then placed in a poaching liquid (milk or water) and cooked for a few minutes.

Many chefs bake their meringues instead of poaching them. Simple spoonfuls of meringue are placed on parchment and baked.

This technique doesn't require a silicone mold and can compete with the poached meringues for effortless making.

However, if you are looking for a cute dessert, you should bake the meringue in a mold or ramekins.

The floating meringues are traditionally served on a chilled crème Anglaise. David Lebovitz recommends using a "hyper well-chilled" custard poured into chilled serving bowls.

One of the most common toppings is caramel sauce, served by drizzling or swirling over the dessert.

Caramel arranged like a ball of spun sugar makes a beautiful presentation too.

Another common garnish is nuts: hazelnuts, pistachios, toasted almonds, or pink praline - French candied almonds.

If fresh berries and fruits are in season (strawberries, raspberries, bananas, kiwi), they are another popular topping for the floating island.

A mint leaf on top of the dessert is always the perfect finishing touch.

Equipment

Make sure you have all the baking tools and equipment needed for the floating island recipe before you start.

You will need a heavy medium saucepan (a 2-quart saucepan is enough), a wooden spatula to stir creme Anglaise, a cooking thermometer, and a fine-mesh sieve.

To make the meringue spheres, you will need a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or an electric mixer and a silicone half-sphere mold.

Crush caramelized nuts with a food processor for the best and quick result.

Read more about how to bake with silicon molds and how to clean them.

Storage instructions

The assembled floating island should be served and eaten on the same day. However, you can make crème Anglaise, caramelize nuts, and bake the meringue half-spheres in advance.

Can you freeze the floating island? Unfortunately, you can't freeze the floating island dessert, but you can freeze crème Anglaise for up to two to three months.

To thaw, bring it to the fridge overnight. Beat it vigorously to restore its texture before serving.

Expert tips

1. To prevent crème Anglaise from overcooking, use a container with ice cubes or a cold water bath to cool the custard as quickly as possible.
2. If the custard has boiled and got overcooked (the eggs coagulate and form lumps), strain it through a fine-mesh sieve or chinois strainer and give it a few mixer strokes to remove all the lumps. Your custard will become smooth again.
3. Use grapeseed oil or vegetable oil to brush silicone half-spheres before baking.
4. Make-ahead option: make crème Anglaise, cover with plastic in contact, and store in the fridge for up to 2 days. Make caramelized nuts and keep them in an airtight container. Bake meringue half-spheres, turn them on parchment and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.

FAQ

Love meringue desserts? Try these next!

• Rosewater Pavlova Roll
• French Meringue Cake Merveilleux
• Large Meringue (Meringue Géante)
• Browse all the Cake Recipes

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Recipe card

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from https://www.mercotte.fr. It was originally published on December 14, 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.