Granita di Mandorle (Almond Granita) vs Île Flottante: Delicate French Floating Island

Almond and sugar appear in both desserts, but they play very different roles. In the granita, blanched almonds are blended with water and strained into an almond milk, sweetened with a sugar syrup and repeatedly scraped as it freezes, giving light, icy, crystalline flakes with a clean, distinctly almondy sweetness; vanilla is only an optional touch. The île flottante draws its creamy richness from a custard-based crème anglaise of milk, egg yolks and vanilla bean, topped with airy meringue islands, while sugar also becomes an amber caramel and toasted flaked almonds serve only as a finishing garnish.