The Great British Bake Off is one my favorite shows, inspiring new bakes, new flavors, and new techniques! Join me on my journey to bake through all the Season 13 Challenges.

Since replicating Season 8 of the Great British Bake Off wasn’t enough, I decided to try my hand at a different season! This time, I am working on season 13 which is the most recent season! This season had some great bake ideas as well as some not-so-great ones (but we’ll get there when we get there).

So, I figured, let’s do this all again! One of the big challenges I wanted to attempt this time around was coming up with original ideas for the signature and showstopper challenges instead of doing a recreation. On your mark… Get set… Bake!

I have made it to Week seven! Whew! I honestly feel like it has been a slog to get here considering how crazy this year has been. Week seven is custard week! Custard is not really a big thing in the United States. Or at least, not where I live in Ohio. The desserts from this week are definitely a little foreign to me but I am up for the challenge!

The signature challenge this week is floating islands! A dessert that I had never heard of before. From my understanding, the dessert consists of poached meringue sitting on top of crème anglaise. I watched the show and analyzed what all the contestants did before coming up with my own flavor combinations.

I decided to keep the meringue simple. Sometimes the easiest things are the easiest things to get wrong. I wanted to bring in fresh, citrusy flavors in the crème anglaise, so I decided to do a mixture of orange and lemon. But I wanted something to cut the acidity. I decided to make raspberry coulis and a shortbread crumble to top off each floating island.

Check out the Season 13 Great British Bake Off Page to see other bakes from this series or the Make section for more recipes! Leave a comment below and let me know what you think and how the recipe works for you!

Ingredients

There was nothing particularly interesting about this recipe. I am finding that custard requires a lot of eggs. Luckily, I was able to use the yolks in the crème anglaise and the whites for the meringue. It’s almost like someone thought about that when coming up with the idea of a floating island. (And yes… I forgot to include eggs in the picture)

I also used a lot of fresh fruit for this recipe because I really wanted the dish to have a bright and natural flavor.

Process

Crème Anglaise

The core of the floating island is the crème anglaise, so I felt that it was the right place to start. Crème anglaise is made over the stove. I started by flavoring the milk. I placed the milk, sugar, salt, orange zest, and lemon zest into a large saucepan.

By heating the milk, the ingredients can dissolve and impart their flavors. But I did not want the milk to boil. I used a gentle heat since warming was my only goal. The mixture was then taken off of the heat and set aside. I wanted the ingredients to steep in the milk for about an hour.

Close to the end of this hour, I put together an ice bath for cooling the custard when it reaches it final form. The ice bath consisted of mainly ice and a little water. I placed an empty bowl in the center of the ice bath as well. I wanted the bowl to be cold to help stop the custard from cooking.

Then I grabbed a large bowl and whisked the egg yolks together. I am always surprised how pale and fluffy egg yolks can get. The yolk should make a ribbon in the bowl when the whisk is removed.

I heated the milk mixture back up over the stove. Again, I wanted it warm but not boiling. I then poured the warm milk into the egg yolks while continuously whisking. I wanted the eggs tempered but I wanted to keep whisking to avoid having the eggs scrambled. No one wants scrambled custard eggs. (I did have to make two crème anglaise as the first one scrambled)

The custard was put back into the saucepan and then I heated the custard over a medium heat while constantly whisking. This was to thicken the custard and the egg yolks with act as a thickener to get that proper crème anglaise texture.

Lastly, I poured the custard through a sieve, into the bowl on top of the ice bath. I continued whisking the custard while it cooled down to room temperature. The ice bath stopped the custard from continuing to cook and helped change the internal temperature.

I pour a generous amount of crème anglaise into each of my own serving dishes. Since the crème anglaise had the most flavor, I wanted it to shine through and really be the star.

Raspberry Coulis

My next goal was to make raspberry coulis. This is a very simple recipe; it is just blending raspberries and powdered sugar (with a pinch of lemon juice after). To start, I just threw a bunch of raspberries and some powdered sugar into a blender. I tried to puree the raspberries as much as possible.

Then I strained out the puree to get out all of the raspberry seeds. Then I added in the splash of lemon juice. Aaaannd… that’s it! That all there is to a raspberry coulis. I ended up putting the coulis in a squeeze bottle. This helped me decorate my floating island.

I tried to do a swirl of coulis close to the outer edge of the serving dishes. The coulis should have a circular look.

Poaching Meringue

The next step was poaching the meringue and I was a little nervous about this step. Poaching meringue is not something I have ever attempted before. Heck, I’ve never poached eggs before… Before I could get to poaching, I had to whisk together the meringue.

Meringue is easy. I whisked together egg whites and sugar. I wanted the mixture to get white, glossy and have stiff peaks. This means that the meringue stays in its shape when the whisk is removed. Or you can do that thing where you hold the bowl over your head.

Then I needed to quenelle the meringue. This technique uses two spoons to shape the meringue into an oval like egg. I had assumed that this would be easier than it actually was. Creating eight shaped that were the same was extremely difficult. The meringue became progressive bigger and bigger as I kept cooking.

Then it was into the poaching water. I decided to use water to poach the eggs, but I have seen several recipes that suggested using milk instead of water. Water just seemed easier for me. And since the crème anglaise was already milk based, I didn’t want to bring in more milk.

I let the meringue poach for about three to five minutes. I did start by doing a test cooking to get a vibe on how the meringue was cooking. But this felt like a lot of guessing and figuring out what was right. It was a whole process.

Each quenelle of poached meringue was placed on top of its own sea of crème anglaise. This is the island in the floating island. And I could have stopped here but I wasn’t done.

Shortbread Cookies

The main reason that I wanted to make shortbread cookies is because I wanted some sort of non-creamy element in the dessert. Cream on cream on cream just felt a little too creamy. So, I decided to make shortbread cookies and crumble a cookie on top of each serving.

I typically make shortbread in a food processor, but I was curious what would happen if I made them in a more traditional sense. I started by beating the butter and vanilla extract. Then I added in the salt and sugar. Lastly, I added in the flour to make the cookie dough.

The mixture was still flour heavy, so it became a crumblier dough. I pulled everything into a block that ¼ inch tall. This is the final height for the cookie. I tried my best to shape the dough into a square.

Then I wrapped it and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. Chilling is a great way to bring the butter from a softer form back into a stiff form. This helps prevent the butter from melting and spreading when cooking. Shortbread cookies are notorious for not really spreading and this is a part of that. Mine turned out a little weird. They did spread and I wonder if that was due to making them in a stand mixer rather than a food processor.

Then I cut out the cookies into rectangular shapes and baked them. One cookie was crumbled over each serving of the floating island to give the dish just a little crumble texture.

Reflections

I’m not going to lie; the floating island desert is weird. The crème anglaise is effectively liquid. I was expecting the crème anglaise to thicken up a little more. The texture was not quite my thing, but the taste was delicious!

This was overall a strange desert. I think I was spot on in terms of flavor. The orange and lemons brought a citrusy flavor, while the raspberries brought some tartness, and the meringue was light and fluffy. It melted in my mouth. (a phrase I really don’t like).

My husband ate the whole thing, so I know it is good! I was just surprised that it was not to my taste in terms of the texture.

Lessons

What does Coulis mean?

After writing this article, I began to question why some of the dishes have their names. Coulis in particular was one that caught my attention. Where does the name Coulis even come from?

Well, the word is French (which I had kind of assumed). It is considered a thin sauce made from pureed or strained fruits or vegetables. So, it’s just a zhuzhed up version of a puree. Seems simple enough!

recipe

Orange and Lemon Floating Islands

This smooth and creamy dessert consists of orange and lemon crème anglaise, tart raspberry coulis, fluffy meringue, and a shortbread crumble.

Course Dessert

Keyword Creme Anglaise, Lemon, Meringue, Orange

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Resting Time 1

Total Time 2

Servings 7