Recipes & Tips Blog

I love learning a new technique and this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe taught me that meringue can be poached, and it’s fantastic! Floating Islands are a classic French dessert that Dorie Greenspan describes as a childhood touchstone for people growing up in France. Growing up in the U.S., I identify with Rice Krispie treats and Toll House Cookies, but I am more than happy to embrace this elegantly simple, delicious, ethereal dessert.

photo by David Peterman

I have made many meringues; baked, toasted, blow torched, but never poached. The process is as simple as can be and creates a remarkably stable, moist, pillow of meringue. Once the meringue is whipped, dollops are dropped into simmering milk to poach for a minute or so on each side – amazing! The “island” floats on a pool of crème anglaise, which I chose to infuse with basil. I first came across the idea of using basil in sweet applications when flipping through Kate Zuckerman’s book, The Sweet Life: Desserts from Chanterelle. When I saw the recipe for basil ice cream, I bought the book without further scrutiny, figuring any book with basil ice cream must have all sorts of other interesting recipes, and it does. The combination of basil with cream and sugar is remarkably fresh, mildly herby, and delightful.

I thought a few poached banana rafts might be nice on my islands primarily because I have wanted to play around with poaching bananas for some time.  To add some textural variety I dusted them with sugar that I caramelized with a torch just before plating. Had I thought the complete dessert through before getting started, I probably would have chosen a different flavor infusion for the crème anglaise, but I didn’t hear any complaining once it was served.

After poaching the bananas with cinnamon and clove, I strained the poaching liquid and caramelized it to make spun sugar for a garnish. Though I have tried this numerous times, I have yet to master the technique. I suspect success hinges on getting the caramel to the perfect stringy temperature. I managed to get enough nice strands to garnish the desserts, but from the amount of caramel I had, I should have created mountains of spun sugar. My original vision was to gather the spun sugar into a nest to place on the island, but the strands cooled too quickly and just crumbled when I attempted to gather them up. Sugar sticks it is.

Both the poached meringue and poached bananas offer endless options for other applications and I must thank Shari of Whisk a Food Blog, for expanding my baking skills with her recipe selection for this week. The recipe for Floating Islands from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, is posted on Shari’s blog if you would like to give it a try. Steph of Whisk and a Spoon, made the clever observation that by poaching the meringues first, the poaching milk could be used to make the crème anglaise. I also had a desire to get double duty out of the poaching liquid, but hadn’t read her good advice in time, so I added a bit of vinegar and hoped to make ricotta cheese with the milk. No luck. Either the egg proteins foiled me, or maybe the vinegar I used wasn’t acidic enough. I tried.

Poached Bananas with Spice

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
2-3 medium bananas, peeled and sliced about 1/2″ thick
1 cinnamon stick, about 3″ long
3 whole cloves

Additional sugar for caramelizing if desired

In a small sauce pan, mix the sugar, water and spices together over medium-low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the bananas, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes until the bananas are soft. If not using the bananas right away they can remain in the poaching liquid.

Simply served in a small dish with a bit of the poaching liquid and a splash of coconut milk makes a nice dessert, or the bananas can be use to garnish other desserts.

To caramelize the bananas for a crunchy candy coating, place them on a wire cooling rack set over a baking sheet to drain. Sprinkle the banana slices with granulated sugar and either place them under a broiler or caramelize the sugar with a torch until it is a deep golden brown.