Baked Alaska

Instructions :
Preparing the ice-cream

To do at least 24h before the rest of the recipe :
Buy ½ litre of good vanilla ice-cream. Take it out of its container. Place it into a bowl and allow it to soften for 30 minutes at room temperature. Then, whisk it until it reaches the consistency of whipped cream.
Pour it into the tin that you will use for the making of your baked Alaska and place it in the freezer.

On the day that you are preparing your baked Alaska : Making the sponge

90g caster sugar+1 Tsp vanilla sugar
3 egg yolks
100g sifted, strong flour
30g melted butter
3 egg whites

1) Start your oven at 200°C (392°F)
2) Place your egg yolks into a bowl and add the sugars. Whisk until it becomes creamy.
3) When done, sprinkle the flour and stir it in well. Then mix in the melted butter.
4) Whisk the egg whites until stiff and carefully fold them into the batter with a spatula.
5) Pour the batter into a baking tin (the same size as the one used for the ice-cream) and bake for 30 minutes.
6) Take your sponge out of the tin and allow it to cool down.

Now, we have the ice-cream and the sponge ready, now lets get the meringue going.

Making the meringue

Whisk 4 egg whites until stiff while adding 60g of caster sugar little by little. Mix 2 egg yolks with 13g of corn starch and add them to the stiff egg whites. In this way your meringue will be strong enough to hold while decorating your baked Alaska.

Making the syrup

Place 100g of caster sugar and 10cl of water into a pot and bring to the boil. Allow to cook for 3 minutes. Let your syrup cool down and flavour it with some Grand-Marnier or brandy.

Mounting your baked Alaska

1) Slice your sponge lengthwise, in two pieces. Put them onto a board and punch them with your syrup.
2) Take your ice-cream out and slice it the same way as the sponge cake and place one half on each slice of sponge cake.
3) Fill a pipping bag with your meringue and coat one piece of sponge and ice-cream. Place
your second ice-cream-sponge slice on the top of it. Finally, coat the lot with some meringue and decorate the whole log with the rest of the meringue.
Put your baked Alaska into the freezer, making sure that it is not going to be damaged, until the day of your meal.

On the day

1) Start your oven at 240°C (464°F)
2) Take your baked Alaska out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving. Dust it with some icing sugar and bake it for 3 minutes.
3) Heat up your Grand-Marnier (or other) and flambé your baked Alaska in front of your guests. Finally, slice it...

As always take extreme care when you flambe your baked Alaska: Keep the kids at bay and have a damp cloth nearby if the flames get out of control.

This recipe seems quite long, but it can be made in stages.In this way you will be able to say: This is the one I made earlier...