August Daring Bakers: Baked Alaska

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Yay! An excuse to make more ice cream!!! And an excuse to use a blow torch!!!

YES!!! This is as close as my boyfriend would get to me with the blow torch.

Actually we had the choice between Baked Alaska and Petit Fours (those tiny little fancy cakes that are drenched in chocolate.) But I don't do fancy well, and this was a chance to use open flame, so I went with the Baked Alaska. I'm not a huuuuge pound cake fan, to be honest, and I've never understood the hoopla for browned butter (I know, blasphemy.) But I was pretty blown away and was happy to have scraps to snack on the rest of the day. This cake is more coffee cakelike- it's sturdy, rich, nutty; a tiny bit drier than your average cake. Which makes it a perfect compliment to ice cream. And delicious marshmallowy meringue that gets toasted with the blow torch.

This was just before I dropped my camera/phone into the batter. Awesome.

I went with a peach ice cream from David Lebovitz (of course) that's made with sour cream. It's a more grown up ice cream- not overly sweet custard that would just turn this whole dessert into one pile of sugariness. It's also a little harder than your average ice cream (although that might be because I accidentally bough fat free sour cream.) The tanginess really gave it that extra umph to round out the dessert.

One lesson I learned the hard way- never use egg whites from a carton when making a meringue. I've never had trouble getting a meringue to come together before. I wanted to take a shortcut this time because I have so many egg yolks on standby that I didn't want to add any more. But after 30 minutes of mixing and waiting for the egg whites to fluff up, I broke down and just separated some eggs. That time it came together in minutes. At least I got a good arm workout, though, and now I have four more excuses to make more ice cream!
Here's the recipes. I halved the meringue recipe since I was just making a smaller dessert for 2 and just stored the leftover ice cream and cake (and by stored, I mean put back in the fridge, only to come back to an hour later. And then again two hours after that.) If you want to give the Petit Fours a try, go here!

Peach Ice Cream
The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

3 large peaches, peeled, pitted, chopped
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice

Cook peaches and water in a covered saucepan on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until soft. Give it a stir a few times. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Let mixture cool to room temperature. Purée mixture in blender with remaining ingredients (leave some chunks if desired). Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator or over an ice bath then freeze in your ice cream maker.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Meringue

8 large egg whites
½ teaspoon (3g) cream of tartar
½ teaspoon (3g) salt (I omitted this)
1 cup (220g) sugar

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

Assembly Instructions – Baked Alaska

1. Line four 4” (10cm) diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid.

2. Level the top of the brown butter pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler. Cut out four 4” (10cm) diameter circles from the cake. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.

3. Make the meringue (see above.)

4. Unwrap the ice cream “cups” and invert on top of a cake round. Trim any extra cake if necessary.

5. Pipe the meringue over the ice cream and cake, or smooth it over with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.

6. Burn the tips of the meringue with a cooking blow torch. Or, bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 500°F/260°C oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.