Île Flottante au caramel

Île Flottante which literally means "Floating Island" is an easy-to-make, (apart from the cream which is a little bit delicate) elegant and homey dessert. It?s one of the classics in French Desserts, which consists of a floating meringue island on a sea of heavenly rich Crème Anglaise(Vanilla custard cream).

Ingredients: (for 6)
6 eggs
1l milk
1 vanilla bean
1 tsp potato starch
250g sugar (150g+100g)
60g icing sugar
Corn oil for greasing
A pinch of salt

Method:
For the Crème Anglaise:
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise into 2 and with a sharp knife, scrape the seeds from the pod and put both the pod and the seeds in a deep bottomed vessel containing the milk.
Heat and let it boil for a minute. Reduce the heat and let the vanilla infuse in the milk for about 3 minutes.
In the meantime, we are going to separate the yolks from the white of the 6 eggs. Reserve the whites in the refrigerator until needed. In a bowl, whip the egg yolks and the potato starch, along with 150g sugar
until we get a creamy, smooth and homogeneous mixture.

Remove the vanilla pod from the boiling milk and pour it little by little, on the egg yolk mixture, while stirring continuously with the other hand. We are going to do this very slowly to prevent any coagulation of the eggs.
Pour all of the above mixture into the double bottomed vessel once again
and heat on very low flame while stirring constantly with a spatula. We don?t want to let it boil.
The cream is done when it coats the back of the spatula.
Pour it into a cold container and let it cool down completely. The cream can be done 24h in advance and conserved in the refrigerator.
When completely cool, pour it into individual serving bowls and refrigerate.

For the meringue:
Preheat the oven to 140°C.
Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt and start beating on slow and then on medium speed until you get stiff peaks. Add the icing sugar little by little and continue to beat until it?s over. At this stage, if the bowl containing the whipped eggs is turned upside down, nothing should fall down.

Grease small ramekins with the corn oil and place a big spoon of the whites in each ramekin.
Place all the ramekins in a baking tray filled with water and cook in a bain-marie for about 20- 30 minutes.
The whites will puff up and brown slightly.

Remove each one of them delicately and place one or two on the cooled cream. Refrigerate until serving.
For the caramel:
Put 100g sugar in a thick bottomed vessel and heat on low medium heat until you get a golden brown liquid. Add a tsp of lemon juice to keep the caramel liquid and cool it down slightly.
Drizzle the caramel on top of the meringue
and garnish with roasted almonds and some praline. Bon Appétit!