Île Flottante: Slow-baked Meringues with Crème Anglaise and Bittersweet Chocolate

I have to confess: I was putting off making this dish for months now, and I'm not quite sure why. You may have seen it pop up in my "Up Next" section three or four times, excited to see it, and then get ka-blammed when I did monkfish and oxtail or some sort of organ-related dish instead. Sorry 'bout that. I'm not normally a tease, but I kept losing my mojo about this dish. It's one of the only desserts that absolutely intimidated me, and again, I have no clue why. It's weird, because when you look at all the separate elements of it, it's really not all that difficult. There was just something about the dish as a whole that made me nervous and uneasy about making it, so I procrastinated.

Boy, was that ever a stupid thing to do.

Why? Because this is the best dessert I have ever made, bar none. I highly recommend you go out and buy the book, or check it out from your library, and make this dish. Immediately. I am totally being the boss of you right now. Seriously, turn off your computer, get yer arse to the grocery store, and go make this. Oh wait. Maybe you should finish reading this post first. Yeah. But when you're done, call in sick to work, blow off any other commitments you've made and make this dessert. You won't be sorry. And, you can share it with the ones you love, or eat all six of them yourself. That's up to you. Who am I to judge?

Let's get started. Step one? Mint oil.

Pretty, pretty mint leaves my friend, Linda, grew in her garden and she graciously let me have since the deer have eaten all of my mint (and parsley - what's up with that, DEER? Bad breath problems? Feeling gassy from all the hostas of mine YOU ATE WITHOUT ASKING??).

I blanched and ice-bathed the mint leaves, mixed them with some canola oil and blended them in the blender.

I let the purée rest in the fridge overnight, then wrapped it in a cheesecloth and let the mint oil drip out over the next hour or so:


I put the mint oil in a small eye-dropper bottle since I knew I'd want to make smaller dots, rather than the somewhat sloppily executed oil rings I'd done in the past. I stored the bottle of oil in the fridge until it was time to plate the dish.

Up next? Meringues.

I think this may have been the step that intimidated me the most, and I still don't know why because it was really easy. I've made meringues before, but for some reason, I thought this particular method would set me up for the glorious failure I know you all love so much. But TOO BAD FOR YOU, it did not.

To prep, I preheated my oven to 250 degrees and sprayed some non-stick spray into six foil cupcake liners. I combined egg whites and sugar in my metal Kitchen Aid mixing bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, whisking it until the mixture was warm and the sugar had dissolved. I put the mixing bowl on the mixer stand, and used the whip attachment to beat the egg whites and sugar until they formed soft peaks.

I reserved a half cup of the meringue to use later in the mousse, but put the rest into a pastry bag (you could use a ziploc bag with the tip cut off, if you don't have or don't want to buy a pastry bag or the tips) and piped it into the foil cups. The cups were in a baking dish, which I then poured hot water into so that it'd go halfway up the sides of the foil cups. I covered the baking dish with a sheet of aluminum foil and baked them for about 20 minutes.

When they were done, I removed the meringues (still in their foil cups) and put them in the fridge for about an hour to cool and firm up.

While the meringues were in the fridge, I made the chocolate mousse. I put the chopped bittersweet chocolate into a mixing bowl. I brought some cream up to a simmer, and then poured it over the chocolate, letting it melt the chocolate. After a minute or two of just letting the cream work its magic, I stirred the mixture until it was smooth and all the chocolate was melted.

Then, I whisked some cream until it had reached the stiff-peak point, and folded that and the reserved meringue into the chocolate mixture. Zee mousse, she is ready.

Now, on to my favorite part of the process -- digging out the center of the meringes and filling them with the chocolate mousse:

Not exactly the most precisely perfect execution, but for a first-timer who had expectations of meringues and mousse flying all over the kitchen, I was pleased. These lovelies remained in the fridge until I was ready to plate. I also saved the leftover mousse (and there was a decent amount left over) to eat later.

Next, I made crème anglaise, which you can see here. I didn't photograph it this time.

Last, but not least, I made the chocolate tuiles. I was also sort of intimidated by this step, although when it came down to actually making it, it was really easy and I felt like a doofus for being hesitant about it.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, and in a mixing bowl, creamed some butter and powdered sugar:

I sifted together the flour and cocoa powder, mixed half that in, then an egg white, then the remaining cocoa/flour mixture, and ended up with this (it was making a slappity-slapper sound, which told me it was time to turn off the mixer):

Using an offset spatula and a 2.25" circular stencil I cut out of a plastic 3-ring binder divider, I made little cookie-type things on a Silpat. I then put the Silpat on a baking sheet and baked them for 7 minutes when the tuiles were set.

When they were done, I put the Silpat on a cooling rack to bring the tuiles to room temperature:


Man, was I happy those tuiles worked -- I fully expected to burn them, break them, drop them, or just have them not be what they were supposed to be... but they were excellent.

Time to plate.

I made a small pool of crème anglaise, then placed one of the meringues in the center. I had to gently remove each merinuge from its foil cup wrapper and allow the goop to drip off before inverting it onto the dish. I bypassyed the step of using a round cutter to make it more of a cylinder instead of the shape of the cupcake liner I made them in. I'd gotten this far and was pleased with the results, I didn't want to risk the meringues imploding or falling apart during that step. Because you know that totally would have happened, and I am sick and tired of sucking at desserts, so I kept on going with what I knew I could do for a first-timer.

So, crème anglaise, inverted semi-trapezoidal meringue, tuile on top, on top of that some chocolate shavings with drizzled mint oil and a tiny sprinkle of fleur de sel, and drops of mint oil around the meringue:

What's that sound you just heard? Every pastry chef across America falling off their chairs onto the floor in astonishment that I did not screw this up. Not trying to be all self-congratulatory here, but that is soooo not ugly!! It's actually kind of pretty and appetizing! And, even more importantly, it tasted absolutely delicious. I'm a fan of dark chocolate and mint together, but all of this in one dessert was beyond my wildest expectations. It was creamy and cool and fluffy and smooth, and just out of this freakin' world. The chocolate and the mint alone were delightful, but the vanilla of the crème anglaise, and the lightness of the meringues... and the different textures of crunch and smooth.... oh, I wish I could make one for every one of you out there, but alas, I think you should make it yourself. It's so well worth the effort, I promise.


Look at that mousse in the center! Woo-hooo!!!!!! This recipe makes six servings, but leaves enough leftover mousse to enjoy the next day for breakfast... I mean, dessert after lunch. Or, lunch. You know, whatever floats your boat.

I finished these in the afternoon and had planned to serve them to my friends later that night. So, I plated one, photographed and ate it, but when I was downloading the photos, I realized that I forgot to add the tuile, so that meant I had to assemble YET ANOTHER ONE at THAT VERY MOMENT, photograph it, then eat it, leaving only four meringues left for my friends. Oh darn. Sucks to be them and have to share, I suppose. *Snerk* I did, however, serve them the leftover mousse because I felt a little bit guilty. See, I'm human, despite what some people think. And in honor of my humanitarian effort around mousse sharing, and because I made the best dessert of my life, today, I officially crown myself Successfully Awesome Dessert Maker of The Month For Someone Who Usually Sucks At It And By The Way I Also Rock At Sharing.

Even though I live in Maryland, I need to see if I can get the Mayor of New York City to issue a proclamation in my honor. Anyone know how to get in touch with him? It's official business, I swear.

BEST. DESSERT. EVER.

Up Next: "Yabba Dabba Do" -- Roasted Rib Steak with Golden Chanterelles, Pommes Anna, and Bordelaise Sauce

Resources:
Eggs from Smith Meadows Farm
Domino sugar and powdered sugar
Organic Valley heavy cream and whole milk
Vanilla bean from the TPSS Co-op
365 organic unsalted butter and canola oil
King Arthur flour
Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder
Mint from Linda's garden (thanks!)
Guerande fleur de sel
Noi Sirius Bittersweet chocolate

Music to Cook By: Boston; Boston. When I was in elementary school, we were allowed to bring in a record to play in music class so that we could learn about different kinds of music the other kids liked. In fourth grade, I brought in an ELO double album (I was obsessed with the song "Sweet Talkin' Woman" and also I was a geek who loved ELO) and one of the boys in my class brought in this Boston album. I've been hooked ever since. There's something about the song "Foreplay/Long Time" that I just love. That whole intro feels like Tom Scholz was a former symphonic director who escaped the loony bin and began attacking a synthesizer. Later on in the song, the hand claps, harmonizing vocals, lead guitar... all of it still to this day makes me wish I was in a band wailing on a drum kit or wielding a mike like nobody's business. And it was a great album to have on in the kitchen while I made a dessert that I am officially adding to the permanent repertoire.

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