Tuesdays with Dorie: Floating Islands

What on earth are these? Alien spawn?
Milk volcanoes? Close. They're Dorie Greenspan's version of Floating Islands, the classic impress-the-boss'-wife dinner party dessert. I always wanted some of these (custard? MORE custard? caramel?) but they always seemed too silly to bother assembling. I'm more of an eat-cup-custard-out of the bowl girl than a frost and ice and assemble type. Between my mediocre photography skills and my lack of presentation in general, you may have already gathered that. Or, (and this is likely) you may know me. I sometimes like to do a fancy thing, though, and this was a good excuse. The first step is creme anglaise, which I make all the time and call it ice cream, so that went fine. Then, the meringue...whipped to a frenzy and then...poached in milk. That was odd. They came out well, I think (see above), though I'm not totally sure what well would have been. They had a fun texture but were kind of tasteless. Onward. I slapped the cold fluffs in the cold custard, and started some caramel. Unfortunately, I got distracted and burned it, so maple syrup took up the slack.
My floating island looks like a reverse egg.
It was good, though not amazing. I ended up tossing the rest of the islands, though a small amount of custard is still waiting in the fridge. Maybe I'll make a very small amount of ice cream.