Dearn's Baked Alaska

It was never my intentions of making this a cookery blog but it seems to be fulling up with recipes and I rather enjoy sharing them. Cooking (and baking) is very therapeutic for me (as in writing this blog) This is not to say that I have any mental problems (which I am aware of) but cooking in my kitchen certainly soothe jangled nerves, heal broken hearts and cure boredom, insomnia and anxiety so what more do you need without taking a pill? Cooking builds self-esteem and curb negative thinking by focusing the mind on following a recipe and when people compliment you of what you have prepared then it really feels worth the effort. One dish which I have had great success and am very proud of is my Baked Alaska. Baked Alaska (also known as glace au four, omelette à la norvégienne, Norwegian omelette and omelette surprise) is a dessert food consisting of ice cream and cake topped with browned meringue.

This dish defies the laws of physics as you end up sticking ice cream is a very hot open and once its done it always is a pleasant surprise to me cutting it open and finding the ice cream still frozen

Firstly I make a pint of my favorite ice cream, I have covered this previously on my blog so wont go into details but this time I made strawberry with double cream and real fresh strawberries. Once prepared I pack the ice cream in a glass bowl which I have lined with clingfilm them place in the freezer to get super hard. I then prepare a basic Victorian sponge to the size circumerance to my glass bowl which I placed the ice cream in. Its sometimes nice to add a little vanilla or rose water to the sponge mixture. One the sponge is baked and cooled I place on baking paper and on a baking tray, I then take the ice cream out of the fridge, coax out of the bowl by placing briefly in a sink of hot water then tugging on the clingfilm. I invert the bowl over the sponge then discard the clingfilm.

I then spread the whole dome, right to the base of the sponge with meringue mix which I have prepared minutes before hand by whipping up 4 free range room temp egg whites and 200g of caster sugar with an electric hand mixer, I add a little cream of tartar to stabilise the mixture and know its ready when I can turn the bowl upside down and it does not slide out, it also should have glossy white peaks.

Back the whole meringue coated ice cream sponge based dome in a very hot preheated oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until the peaks are golden.

This stunt is made possible by scientific thinking, the ice cream is insulated by the air trapped in the sponge and meringue. Serve as a desert completes this exercise in baking therapy for me.