Salut mes P’tits croissants!
Today, we are making a delicious French dessert. A silky smooth vanilla anglaise, pillowy cloud like milk poached meringue topped with with a crunchy caramel and toasted almonds.
Invented in the late 1700’s in both England and France, we had 2 very different version of the dessert although it had the same name.
Nowadays the version eaten worldwide and which we’re cooking today is closer to French version.
Ok, let’s get cooking, shall we? and bon appétit!
-Pour the milk (from the anglaise) into a wide saucepan and whisk in the vanilla bean paste. Heat this on medium-low.
-Whip the egg whites with salt in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or using electric beaters on high speed until the whites are frothy, and then slowly pour in the sugar while whipping, and continuing to whip until the whites hold a stiff peak when the beaters are lifted.
-Fold in the cornstarch.
-Make sure that the milk is hot, but not showing signs of bubbling at all.
-Use two large spoons to shape and drop ovals of meringue into the hot milk, leaving space between the meringues.
-Poach the meringues, uncovered, for 2 minutes in total, and gently flipping them over halfway through cooking.
-Use a slotted spoon to lift the meringues out to a dish to cool. Continue in batches until all of the meringue has been used, getting 8 meringue portions (2 per person).
-Chill these until ready to serve.
3 Pcs egg yolks
-Strain the milk into a fresh medium saucepan (and top up the milk to equal 1 cup again) and bring to just below a simmer on medium heat.
-Whisk the reserved 3 egg yolks in a bowl with the remaining ⅓ cup of sugar. Slowly pour the hot milk into the yolks while whisking, until all has been added.
-Return this to the pot and stir with a wooden spoon over medium heat until the custard coats the back of a spoon.
-Strain the custard into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap so that it is directly over the surface of the custard. Cool this to room temperature, then chill completely before serving.
-To serve, ladle spoonfuls of crème anglaise into the bottom of a flat dish and top with 2 meringues and then prepare the caramelized sugar.
1 tbsp almonds
-Place the almonds in a pan on medium-high heat and toast until golden brown. Place over top the meringue.
