Island Recipe ⟶ Floating Island (Oeufs a la Neige)

A soft vanilla custard with floating clouds of poached meringue.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• ½ cup white sugar, divided
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cooking Directions

1. 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.
2. 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. Immediately remove the bowl from the heat, and use an electric mixer to beat the warm egg whites until they form stiff, glossy peaks.
3. Pour the chilled custard into a serving dish. Drop the meringue by heaping tablespoons onto the custard to make islands. Chill before serving.

Nutrition Facts

• calories166.4
• carbohydrateContent23.6 g
• cholesterolContent118.3 mg
• fatContent5.3 g
• proteinContent6.1 g
• saturatedFatContent2.3 g
• sodiumContent234.7 mg
• sugarContent23.6 g