Home › Ice Creams and Ices › Baked Alaska
Baked Alaska
Take block of ice cream, unmould onto a square of sponge cake an inch thick. Cover with a thick meringue put on artistically, made of white of eggs and powdered sugar. Have all ready for use before unmoulding ice cream. Place on pine board covered with white paper. Brown in hot oven, or with a salamander or heated fire shovel.
The whole method hinges on thermal mass: a rock-hard block of ice cream, an insulating layer of cake and meringue, and the shortest possible blast of heat. Everything must be assembled and ready before the ice cream leaves the mould.
- Freeze harder than you thinkPack the ice cream into a loaf pan or square mould and freeze it solid for several hours, ideally overnight at the coldest setting. A soft centre will slump the moment it meets oven heat.
- "Hot oven" means 450-500F"Hot oven" -- period usage puts a hot oven at roughly 400-450F. Turn it high and brown the meringue for a few minutes, watching it the whole time. A broiler set on high does the same job in about a minute; a kitchen torch is the closest modern equivalent to the heated shovel.
- Salamander and fire shovelA salamander was a flat iron disc on a handle, heated in the fire and held over food to colour it. The fire shovel was the improvised version. Neither is needed now.
- Meringue proportionsThe recipe gives none beyond whites and powdered sugar. Allow roughly 4 egg whites and 1/2 to 1 cup sugar for a small brick, beaten to stiff, glossy peaks; a pinch of cream of tartar gives more stability. "Thick" is literal, since the meringue is the insulation.
- Seal the edgesCut the sponge base so it projects half an inch past the ice cream on every side, then spread the meringue right down onto the cake so there is no gap. Any exposed ice cream will melt and run.
- The board and paperThe pine board with white paper is insulation and serving dish in one. A wooden cutting board or a thick ovenproof platter works; the paper keeps the cake from sticking and scorching.
- Egg whites barely setA few minutes of surface browning leaves the interior of the meringue essentially raw. Use pasteurized whites if serving anyone who should avoid raw egg.
- Yield and servingA quart brick on a matching cake base serves 6 to 8. Cut with a large knife dipped in hot water and wiped between slices, and serve at once.
Baked Alaska belongs to a small family of nineteenth-century show dishes built on the principle that stiffly beaten egg white is a poor conductor of heat, so ice cream can be browned without melting. Versions circulated in French kitchens as omelette norvégienne or omelette surprise, and the American name is generally traced to the 1867 purchase of Alaska, which made the territory a byword for cold in the popular press; Delmonico's in New York is often credited with popularizing the name, though the attribution is traditional rather than documented. The offer of a salamander or heated fire shovel as an alternative suggests a kitchen that could not count on a reliable high oven.