Other kids would be playing outside during summer vacation, and I did that too, but mostly I would spend the afternoons watching cooking shows on PBS. I paid attention and learned about new foods with names I’d never heard of. I would experiment here and there with some basics I had learned, but it wasn’t until I was much older that I would attempt some of the more sophisticated recipes. Like the other day when I made Julia Child’s Floating Islands recipe.
Julia Child’s Floating Islands – Île Flottante
Those cooking shows coupled with a mother and grandmothers who knew their way around a kitchen instilled a love of food, cooking, and family. I’m not that proficient in showing my love in some ways, but I sure love making food for the people I love. Nothing brings me greater joy. Making Îll Flottante for my family made us all very happy!
My Summers Baking With Julia
One of my favorite PBS cooking shows was Baking With Julia. I loved it. It might have had to do with all of the butter, cream, eggs, sugar, chocolate and flour. It might have also had to do with the way Julia treated her guests like they were the experts and she their student. I loved that about her–I never knew how much of an icon she was, just that I really liked her. In my young mind I imagined what it would be like to be in Julia’s kitchen making delicious treats.
Consequently, one of my favorite gifts from my husband is the picturesque series companion cookbook (affiliate link) compiled by Dorie Greenspan. I have lost count of the many hours I’ve sat and poured over the recipes, pictures, and detailed instructions.
Don’t be intimidated!
Although Julia’s Floating Islands require a few steps more than your average recipe, it is absolutely worth the effort and extra time. We had been wanting to try Floating Islands for a long time. I don’t know why, but I’ve always shied away from it, thinking it was maybe too difficult or time consuming. Wrong! It’s very easy. Of course, it is also delectable in every way too.
The pillowy, soft white meringue “cake” floating in a puddle of rich, creamy custard with caramel sauce that hardens as it cools fascinated my daughters. We may have even had a few tears as they waited until dessert was served…which was after I took photos. (One more and then you’re done, right, Mom?!)
Julia Child’s 100th birthday is coming up next month. In honor of her life and legacy and her 100th birthday, I wanted to make a recipe of hers to share on here. I have a few of her cookbooks and they are very fun to read. I can hear her distinct voice explaining to me how to cook a whole salmon en croute or the right way to fold egg whites into a sponge cake batter.
So Happy Birthday Julia! I owe a big part of my childhood and adult fascination with food and cooking to you.
Julia Child’s Floating Islands Recipe
A classic French dessert, floating islands feature a fluffy meringue in a pool of creamy custard sauce.
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Ingredients
- For creme anglaise:
- 6 large egg yolks
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups very hot milk
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter (optional)
- 2 Tbsp. rum or another liqueur (optional)
- For meringue:
- 1 Tbsp. softened butter
- 1/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar
- 1 2/3 cups egg whites (about 12)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
- large pinch salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- For caramel sauce:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 2–3 Tbsp. heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- For serving:
- Fresh berries, optional
Instructions
- For creme anglaise: Preliminaries. Whisk the egg yolks in a 2-quart saucepan, adding the sugar by fairly rapid spoonfuls–if it goes in all at once the yolks can turn grainy.
- Continue beating 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture is pale yellow and thick. By dribbles, stir in the hot milk–stirring, not beating, because you do not want the sauce to foam.
- Heating the sauce. Set the saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring rather slowly with the wooden spoon, and reaching all over the bottom and sides of the pan. The sauce should gradually come near–but not to–the simmer. You must be careful not to overheat it and scramble the yolks, but you must have the courage to heat it enough so that it thickens. Indications that it is almost ready are that surface bubbles begin to subside, and almost at once you may see a whiff of steam rising. Watch out at this point, you are almost there!
- When is it done? The sauce is done when it coats the wooden spoon with a light creamy layer thick enough to hold when you draw your finger across it, as shown.
- Finishing. Beat in the vanilla, and the optional butter and rum. Serve warm, tepid, or cold.
- Ahead of time note: The sauce may be refrigerated in a covered container for several days.
- For meringue: Preliminaries. Butter a straight-sided 4-quart baking dish 3″ deep and dust the inside with confectioners sugar, knocking out the excess. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
- Beating the egg whites. Start beating the egg whites at moderate speed until the foam throughout, beat in the salt and cream of tartar, then gradually increase the speed to fast until soft peaks are formed.
- Beating in the sugar. Beat in the sugar by big spoonfuls and continue until stiff shining peaks are formed. Beat in the vanilla, and turn the meringue into the prepared baking dish.
- Baking. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 250 degrees F. Set in the lower middle of the oven and bake until the meringue has risen 3 to 4 inches.
- When is it done? A skewer or straw plunged through it comes out clean.
- Cooling. Set the casserole on a rack. The meringue will sink down to about its original height as it cools.
- Ahead of time note: covered airtight, it will keep several days in the refrigerator or several weeks in the freezer.
- For caramel sauce: Preliminaries to boiling. Blend the sugar and water in the saucepan and bring to the simmer. Remove from heat, and swirl the pan by its handle to be sure that the sugar has dissolved completely and the liquid is perfectly clear.
- Caramelizing the syrup. Cover the pan tightly and boil the syrup for several minutes over moderately high heat–keep peeking, after a minute or so, and boil until the bubbles are thick. Uncover the pan and continue boiling, swirling the pan slowly by its handle. In a number of seconds the syrup will begin to color. Continue boiling and swirling a few seconds more, until it is a light caramel brown, then remove from heat. Stir in the butter and cream. Put back on the heat and cook over a low heat and stir with a fork until any hardened caramel melts and the sauce is smooth. Set the bottom of the pan in the cold water to cool it and stop the cooking.
- To serve: Pour the custard sauce into a serving platter (or individual dessert plates). Run a knife around the edge of the meringue dish and push with a rubber spatula to loosen. Unmold the meringue onto a cookie sheet. Cut it into 6-8 chunks and arrange them over the sauce.
- Just before serving, reheat the caramel until you can lift the syrup with a fork and dribble thick strands over meringue. Add a few fresh berries on the side, if desired.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: French
37 Comments
This looks fabulous! Yum!
Your observation about how Julia Child always treated her guests like the expert is so true. It hadn’t occured to me before but I realize it’s true. She was so popular BECAUSE she didn’t have a big ego, she only loved to cook (and eat)!!!. I sure do miss her shows.
These are seriously so beautiful!! I want to jump right in!
If I could flip off a recipe, this would be the one. We tried three times to get the custard right. Scrambled eggs every time! Even when I had it on low. I have made custard before. I don’t know what the story was here. So frustrating.
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Absolutely gorgeous photos. I was so happy to meet you in person last year. I’m in awe of where you live :)
Haha, oops. That comment was meant for Evo post ;)
This is just so beautiful.Love the recipe and love the photography too. Your china is beautiful and goes so well with the elegant dessert! Happy 100th JC!
This looks beautiful and so delicious!
I adore Julia :-)
Mal @ The Chic Geek
This is great!
Take what I say with a grain of salt (and of course throw some over your shoulder) but Julia would not consider this her recipe because you called for butter OPTIONAL.
Just saying…
Dianne, I agree! However, Julia’s recipe lists the butter and liqueur as optional (pg. 446 of The Way To Cook), though I assume she probably always added the butter and the booze. :)
My Mom used to make this dessert all the time. We called it “Egg white pudding”. The yellow custard is the best part!
You are using my mom’s china! I haven’t seen it in ages.
At 15 I had my first job as a waitress in a tiny cottage restaurant owned by a French cook. He would sneak and give the staff floating island when his cranky wife wasn’t in the restaurant. I have been looking for a recipe off and on for over 20 years. Can’t wait to try this! Thanks
I too love Julia Child, back then there weren’t many tv cooking shows. Even though I couldn’t eat all the butter I loved to watch her when I was growing up. Thank you for posting this dish, with a few modifications for allergies I know I can make it. Just wanted to mention that you have my dishes! My mother-in-law had pink dishes and to be polite I complimented them. So as a wedding gift we got a set of the above dishes. They sure didn’t go with our fall colored dining room theme. I used them for years for holidays but finally put them in storage, seeing yours makes me know it’s time to get them back out and use them again.
Made this for a smallish gathering. It created a fuss even before I prepared the plates. It was a great success with the crunch of the Carmel being the most cited aspect of the dessert. Your write up before the recipe was charming.
Hi Rick! Thank you for reporting back. Glad it turned out well for you. You can’t go wrong with Julia’s recipes!
Not that the recipe was bad, because anything with Julia Childs is amazing. But the creme anglaise, you made that sound so difficult, when in reality it’s rather simple. (I’m a student at Le Cordon Bleu, the same school as our lovely Julia Childs)
there is an easier way if you don’t mind me sharing: if you beat the eggs first in a bowl, then add the sugar and whisk over a pot with water on a low simmer, you can whisk them until the sugar melts. Just keep touching it until you no longer feel the grain texture of the sugar (maybe 3 to 5 minutes). Once it’s gone, add the milk, but warm it first. (Never add cold milk to a hot cream, always warm it first, then you don’t risk the chance of a scramble) Then just use a spatula until it becomes napa. (which means thicken enough that it coats the back of the spoon, which I’m sure you might have already known that) place it in a bowl and that bowl in ice, and keep moving it around every now and then, until it’s completely cool. The foam will go away, so you don’t need to worry about that part of it. A film sometimes occurs over the top of it, just use plastic wrap to keep it from happening. But there you go, less than 10 minutes and you have creme anglaise the simple way. Hope you don’t mind me sharing that.
This can also be used as a base for vanilla ice cream. If you add a vanilla bean with the seeds and the pod to the cream before it becomes thicken. Then strain it through a fine sieve to remove the bigger chunks of bean and seeds. You can use an ice cream machine to freeze it and enjoy. Fair warning, it will be soft until you freeze it overnight.
Ha! I totally agree with you. :) Those directions are actually from Julia herself. I appreciate you adding in your directions. I think the other directions are a bit complicated too!
I had to make this recipe for french class, and thanks to you guys i got an A! thank you for this recipe!
I was looking for floating island recipe, my mother used to make this all the time When I was a child. The first time she tried it was at Julia”s sister Dorothy’s. Funny that I should run across this particular recipe. Can’t wait to try it.
It’s a good recipe for sure. I’ve enjoyed everything of Julia’s that I’ve made. And I love that story! Thanks for sharing!
This is my favorite dessert and I am thrilled to find the recipe. I am also thrilled to see my Mom’s dish pattern again. Would you please let me know the name of the pattern? The combination brought back wonderful memories. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Barbara! Sorry for the late reply! The pattern is called Rose Chintz and was/is produced by Johnson Bros. Some of my set is made up of replacement pieces, so I believe they are still available, if you are looking to buy a set. A few years ago I bought some matching mugs at TJ Maxx. It’s just lovely, isn’t it? I only bring it out for special occasions because my kids are still young enough I dread a broken dish! :)
Did anyone else notice the recipe for the meringue on Step 9 says to beat in the vanilla; but there is no vanilla listed in the ingredients for the meringue? I went ahead and used 1/2 tsp. in it… Wish people would pay more attention when editing recipes… Have had the same problem with Jackie Olden recipes.
Hi Wendy! Thanks for pointing that omission. It’s actually supposed to be 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, but using 1/2 teaspoon probably didn’t hurt anything. :) And you’re right! It’s too bad every blogger doesn’t have a full-time editor to catch minor errors.
My family was from Austria and we made this just slightly differently. We cooked the meringue in the milk which had a vanilla bean or two in it. We then, once the meringues were cooked and removed, the warm milk is added to the beaten sugar and egg mixture which we cooked in a double boiler. That is about the only real difference. We never cooked the meringues in the oven. This “snow on the Mountains” was served cold, never room temperature.
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I have been looking for this recipe! We downsized and I get rid of 99% of my cookbooks … unfortunately the Julia Child baking cookbook went because I wasn’t baking. Wish I had it again. Anyway one question … I know meringues are temperamental in the rain and it’s rainy day. Can I make this meringue in the rain if I immediately put a lid on it and cool it? Julia was one who let her guests shine! We used to have quite a few hosts like that and it seems that they have gone away. Now the hosts of many entertainment shows seem to be rather arrogant which is why I don’t watch them LOL.
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Just wanted to confirm you used a 4 quart casserole for the meringue… seems really big. The 4 quart one I have is slightly larger than a 9×13 rectangular pan. Unless I am missing something. Hopefully you are still responding to messages on here.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, Lindsey! Nothing quite beats Julia Child. Her French Onion soup is my favorite. I am going to try this the next time I’m serving a fancier dessert. :)
My grandmother used to make this, and wonderful angel food cakes, without owning a mixer or even a whisk…she had an rotary egg beater. Amazing, really. She was a wonderful cook but this was one of my favorite deserts and this is one of the best recipes for floating island. I’ve tried quite a few, trying to duplicate the desert of my childhood.
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Hello Lindsey,
Thanks for sharing this recipe. It looks very tasty, and I would love to try it out. There’s a whole bunch of recipes; I’d have to go shopping if I want to get it right. What do you think about serving this at a family reunion?
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Hey Claire! So sorry for the very delayed reply. I think you could serve this for a family reunion…but you’d probably want to do a trial run or two to see what you can make in advance, what can be doubled/tripled/quadrupled/etc. and how the meringue holds up.
Don’t know if I am brave enough to try this. But, I had to tell youhat I thought I was the only person who had Rose Chintz dishes. They were my grandmothers and then my mothers but I think that I love them the most.
Thanks for sharing your recipe. I usually make this dessert with Spanish custard and it´s delicious. I will try your recipe.
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Great website, thanks for the great recipes… I’ll use them again in the future ;-) THANK YOU !!! Greetings from Germany
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