TWD: Floating Islands

Or, uh, more like icebergs.

This week's recipe was Floating Islands chosen by Shari of Whisk. According to Dorie, this is a classic french dessert. That's all I needed to know. I was intrigued by the name and by the picture in the book.

Floating Island are puffs of meringue floating in a sea of creme anglaise, a custard-like cream, then sprinkled with caramel on top.



The custard came together just fine. I didn't seem to have any problems with it other than the color. It was much more yellow than Dorie's version in the book. Her instructions were to whisk togother vigorously the yolks and sugar until it became thick and pale. Well, it thickened. And it did lighten up in color, but not to a super pale. I whisked for longer than the 3 minutes suggested too. Maybe I wasn't vigorous enough? Still, it tasted good. Onto the next step.


I am not a big fan of meringue. I much prefer whipped cream as pie topping. I think it's the texture that I don't care for. But I moved forward with an open mind. My meringue seemed to come together easily enough. It was "firm but satiny and still glossy."



But it tasted too eggy to me. I don't remember meringue on top of pie tasting like eggs. Of course, I haven't had it in years either. I thought it could be one of two things. First, while I was seperating the eggs, a little yoke slipped into the whites. Oops. I scooped it out and was able to get all of it. It didn't effect the whites from stiffening up. No, that's not it. So that leaves the poaching effect. Maybe poaching the meringue in the milk brought out more of the egg flavor? Maybe I poached it a little too long. Did yours taste like eggs? I invited my parents over to help me eat it since Jeff is out of town. My mom loves meringue. She agreed with me that it tasted more eggy than meringue normally does, but she liked it. I didn't care for it.





Then there was the shaping of the islands. You have two options - scooping the meringue so that you end up with a rocky volcanic island, or molding the meringue between two spoons so that you end up with a manicured oval island. Well. I tried molding the meringue between two spoons and ended up with a rocky volcanic iceberg! They grew huge while cooking, but then they deflated a little after removing them from the pan.



Final verdict - these were okay. I didn't love them but my mom did. I liked the custard a lot, but didn't care for the islands. I'm sure if Dorie were to make them for me, they would be delicious. I think I did something to mess up the taste of the islands. Either that, or I continue to dislike meringue. I am glad that I made them though. I've never made this kind of a dessert and it was fun putting it all together. So thanks Shari for picking out an interesting and different recipe! As always, you can find the recipe in Dorie's cookbook and at Shari's blog, although I'm currently experiencing some technical difficulties in linking to her blog. I'll keep trying. (EDA: fixed it!) Be sure to check out what other bakers thought of this recipe.

Next week: Devil's Food White-Out Cake!

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

This week we made Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins. I was looking forward to a savory recipe for a change. I think I've been on a sugar high for the past month (not that that's entirely a bad thing).



This recipe is full of good things. Fresh corn, jalapeno pepper, red bell pepper, cilantro and chili powder. I cut the sugar in half. My parents are from the south and we like our cornbread unsweetened. I could tell I was going to like these muffins by the smell of the batter alone.


And I was right. Delicious! With all of those great ingredients, there are so many layers of flavor. They're spicy, but not spicy hot. Perfectly balanced. I had two today with a salad for lunch. I'm going to freeze the rest for the next time I make chili, stew or soup.

Thanks goes to Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake for picking this week's recipe. You can find the recipe on page 6 of The Book or at Rebecca's site. Be sure to visit other bloggers to see how they liked these muffins!

TWD: Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

I knew I was going to like this week's selection, no if's, and's or but's. Give me butter, sugar, flour with a splash of vanilla....how can it go wrong? Well, my friend Wendy who's also my accupuncturist/nutritionist, could and would list more things than we could imagine. But we won't think about that now.

For now, we're just going to think about the sweet, simple goodness of a sugar cookie. This was an easy, straightforward recipe.

After mixing the dough, Dorie gives you the option of forming it into a disc which can be rolled out for cutout cookies, or rolled into a log which can then be sliced into cookies after it's chilled. I decided to go the log route and discovered my log rolling skills are, um, somewhat lacking. They looked like fat tapered cigars.



See how small the ones in the top left corner are compared to the ones in the middle? How do others get a more even log? Dorie suggested using the tube from the middle of a roll of paper towls, but I didn't have one handy. Work on improving log rolling skills - check.

I sprinkled blue sanding sugar on them before baking. They're delicious, even though they are shaped funny. Or, as Dorie would say, they're rustic. They're sweet and buttery, like a good sugar cookie should be.

Ulrike of Küchenlatein chose this week's recipe. You can find the recipe in Baking From My Home to Yours. You can also find it at Ulrike's site. Check out the TWD blogroll to see hundreds of different versions of these cookies!