Gateau Praline ou Ile Flottante
Leonie Penin
Pulvérisez un quart de livre de pralines grises. Battez en neige 4 blancs d'œufs, ajoutez les pralines en poudre, sucre à volonté faites ce mélange vivement et sans battre de nouveau, mettez dans un moule, que vous avez enduit de caramel, mettez au bain-marie et au four pas trop chaud, laissez 20 minutes, faites refroidir et démoulez au moment de servir, garnissez avec une crème à la vanille.
A praline soufflé-meets-floating-island from Léonie Pénin — beaten whites carrying crushed praline, baked gently in a caramel-lined mold and served under vanilla custard.
- “Pralines grises”French almond pralines — almonds cooked in caramel until sandy and brown-gray — crushed to powder. Not the soft pecan pralines of New Orleans; use crushed almond brittle or praline paste.
- The measures¼ lb crushed pralines, 4 egg whites beaten to stiff neige, and sugar to taste.
- Fold fast, then stopFold the praline powder into the whites quickly and gently and don’t beat again; deflating the whites ruins the lift.
- Caramel the moldCoat the mold with caramel before filling; it flavors the dessert and helps it release.
- Gentle bakeSet the mold in a bain-marie in a cool-to-moderate oven (about 325°F) for 20 minutes; cool, unmold at serving, and pour vanilla custard around it.
Île flottante — floating island — is a classic French dessert of poached or baked meringue set adrift on a pool of vanilla custard, and this version enriches the meringue with caramelized almonds. Worth knowing: French and New Orleans pralines are cousins, not twins. The French original is caramelized almonds, brought to Louisiana by French settlers; local cooks swapped in the native pecan and stirred in cream to create the soft, fudgy praline the city is famous for. This recipe, with its almond pralines grises, reaches back to the French ancestor.
From page 112 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
