BAKED ALASKA
About the Recipe
December is a month full of festive occasions, and Baked Alaska is a wildly festive dessert, Defined by freezing ice cream on the inside and toasty, chewy —gooey meringue on the exterior — it's unique. The cake and the meringue serve as insulators, protecting a frozen filling from the heat of a hot oven. In the "olden days" (the late 1950s and 60s when my mother was in the kitchen, for extra insulation, a sheet of heavy brown paper was placed on the cookie sheet under the cake layer. Now, however, home freezers are much colder and double protection is no longer necessary. In fact, sometimes I find the ice cream still hard as a rock post-oven and must wait a few minutes before it can be cut.
For me, the combination of coffee ice cream and a dark rum drizzle on the cake is perfection, but options are endless. Hard to go wrong. Lemon custard ice cream with a limoncello drizzle is not at all bad. Ditto the classic combination of vanilla ice cream with sliced very ripe peaches,plums or apricots or fresh berries between the cake and the ice cream. You can also experiment with layering more than one ice cream flavor and;/or include a layer of sorbet.
You can make the cake ahead, drizzle with liquor, top with ice cream, wrap well and freeze for up to 3.months. Preheat your oven before dinner and when time for dessert, just whip up your meringue, swirl it over the ice cream and bake 3-5 minutes until the meringue peaks are deeply golden..That's all there is to it. Voila. It's literally my favorite dessert on the planet.
BAKED ALASKA
Serves 12-18
Ingredients:
For the Cake Base:
All ingredients should be room temperature
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons liqueur (if using)
For the Ice Cream Layer:
5 pints best quality coffee ice cream
For the Meringue:
8 egg whites at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups sugar plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Method
For the Cake Base:
Preheat oven to 350F
Butter, flour and line 2 10-inch cake pans
Stir dry ingredients together and set aside
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy
Add eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Beat well, then add dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
Divide batter between two 10-inch cake pans and bake just until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes and invert onto wire rack. Cool completely.
Use one for the recipe above. Once cool, the second layer can be wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil and stored almost indefinitely in the freezer for your next Baked Alaska.
For the Ice Cream Layer:
Soften the ice cream and freeze in a metal bowl with a diameter an inch or two smaller than the cake layer. Cover the ice cream with foil and then foil and freeze until very hard, preferably at least 6 hours and up to 4 weeks.
When Ready to Serve:
Preheat the oven to 450 or 500 F
Place the room temperature egg whites and the salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. With the whisk in place, mix on low speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and mix on medium speed until soft peaks form. While mixing add the sugar in a slow steady stream and raise the speed to high. Beat until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Add the vanilla and mix to blend.
Place the frozen cake on a heatproof oval platter large enough to hold it. Drizzle with the liqueur, if using, and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
Unmold the ice cream and place on top of the cake making sure the cake border is even all around the ice cream. Using a spatula, decoratively swirl ALL the meringue over the cake and ice cream, running the meringue down to the platter. Make sure the cake and ice cream are completely sealed in by the meringue.
Sprinkle the last two tablespoons of sugar over the meringue and IMMEDIATELY place in the upper third of the oven. Cook until lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Watch carefully. Serve immediately before the ice cream melts.