Snow eggs with hibiscus and rose hip jelly

Posted by petra08 on December 2, 2016 · 32 Comments 

Some dishes have many, many names. I was reading through a few of my cookbooks the other night and realized I had read the same recipe a few times, it just had different names. This dish is a French classic and I have found the following names so far, Oeufs a la Neige, Snow eggs, Floating Islands, Ile Flottante. I think I prefer snow eggs but it seems that Ile Flottante might be most commonly used. It doesn’t actually matter as it tastes the same, let’s call them snow eggs in this blog.

 

I have eaten snow eggs before but never made them. They are poached meringues, light as feathers floating on a vanilla custard. The original recipe has more sugar but I have reduced this and I changed the vanilla custard to hibiscus and rose hip jelly for something different. I love the flavor of hibiscus and I found a rose hip and hibiscus tea that would be good to use and I added extra dried hibiscus.

 

 

Hibiscus and rose hip jelly

preparation time 5 minutes

cooking time 0 minutes but the tea needs to steep for 4-5 minutes  

serves 4

Ingredients

• 3 heaped tsp hibiscus and rose hip tea
• 5 dl or 2 1/2 cups of boiling water, set aside 1 dl or 1/2 cup of the ready made tea
• 1 gelatin leaf or equivalent agar agar
• 3 tbsp agave nectar

Pour the water slowly on to the tea, cover it and let it sit for 5 minutes. Place the gelatin leaf in cold water until soft.

Put the tea through a sieve or a cloth and place 1 dl or 1/2 cup of the tea on a small bowl. Melt the gelatin and mix it with the tea in the small bowl. Pour the tea on to a large plate and place in the fridge to cool and set, this can take up to a couple of hours.

Place the remaining tea in a pan and bring to a simmer.

 

Snow eggs

preparation time 10 minutes

cooking time 4-5 minutes

serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 50 gr or 1.76 oz caster sugar
• 4 dl of sweetened hibiscus and rose hip tea

Garnish

• fresh cherries
• white chocolate
• whole raspberries

 

Place the egg whites and the lime juice in a bowl and whisk until the egg whites are stiff. Use spoons to shape the meringue and gently poached them in the tea.

Remove the meringues once done and place them on to the set jelly.

Make a raspberry coulis, place a punnet of raspberries except for a few for garnish, in a blender and add 2 tbsp icing sugar. Taste and add more if it is too tart.

I didn’t sieve the seeds out, I wanted them in there for added texture or the dish would be too soft.

Drizzle the raspberry coulis over the snow eggs and garnish with the cherries and the raspberries. Finish the dish by grating over white chocolate.

 

 

 

Snow eggs just melt in your mouth and the hibiscus and rose hip jelly worked great. It might be a lighter version of a dessert for Christmas day, I always try to get out of eating the English Christmas pudding but I am not sure I can win this one, perhaps a dessert for New years eve.

 

I am bringing a plate of this to Angie’s Fiesta Friday, can’t believe another week has gone by so fast! If you have cooked or just want to get some inspiration come and join us. Angie has two fab co hosts, Linda, La Petite Paniere and Juhls, The Not so Creative Cook.

I am also bringing this to Throwback Thursday, hosted by Quinn, Dad What’s for Dinner, Alli, Tornadough Alli, Meaghan, 4Sons RUs, Carlee, Cooking with Carlee and the lovely  Mollie The Frugal Housewife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under Cherries, Dessert, Egg, Fruit, Lime, Recipe · Tagged with Floating islands, hibiscus and rosehip jelly, Ile Flottante, Raspberry coulis, Snoweggs