Baked Alaska: DB Challenge August 2010

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”.

I've had Baked Alaska before and I have been wanting to make it again ever since.  The challenge this month was to make Baked Alaska using a browned butter pound cake but to me, it isn't Baked Alaska without a brownie base.  So, using the Blackberry Brown Sugar Mascarpone Brownies and the Blackberry Brown Sugar Mascarpone Ice Cream that I made earlier (notice a theme here?), I assembled these delicious Baked Alaskas.  I also ventured from the challenge recipe regarding how to finish the final product.  In the challenge, they suggested covering the brownie and ice cream with meringue and simply using a kitchen torch to finish the dessert.  For me, the best part of making Baked Alaska is sticking the hard frozen ice cream and brownie, covered with the insulating meringue, into an incredibly hot oven, and pulling out a warm brownie, crispy golden meringue, filled with cold ice cream 3 minutes later.  For me, without the oven, it's just not Baked Alaska.

I was hoping to also make the browned butter pound cake before today but after all the carb-filled desserts of the last few weeks, and trips to Boston providing me with no oven for the weekends, I just couldn't manage to do it.  But, hopefully, I will post that browned butter pound cake recipe eventually because I hear it's divine! 
Now, in the interest of total transparency, I have to admit that while baking worked beautifully to preserve the cold interior of the dessert while nicely warming both the brownie and the meringue, the result was difficult to transfer from the cookie sheet to a plate without collapsing.  The first batch of Baked Alaska looked more like Bombed Alaska; it still tasted great though!

The pictures on this post all come from cooking the dessert the way the challenge recommended which is taking a chilled brownie, topping it with hard-frozen ice cream, then meringue, and browning the whole thing with the kitchen torch.  This method was less satisfying as there was no amazement at putting ice cream in a 450 degree oven without it melting, and the brownie had no opportunity to get warm.  But, as you can see, the torching method resulted in a much prettier and more stable dessert.

In an effort to not be redundant, you can click the following links to find the recipes for the brownies and ice cream that I used, but keep in mind that ANY dense brownie or cake and ANY ice cream can be paired together to make this dessert.

Ice cream recipe
Brownie recipe

---Ingredients-----------------------------------------------------------

8 scoops ice cream (See recipe link above)
8 cake or brownie squares (See recipe link above)
meringue
        8 large egg whites
        1/2 t cream of tartar
        1/2 t salt
        1 c sugar

---Preparation-----------------------------------------------------------

Make or buy ice cream and brownies or cake.

Make meringue:
        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-----------------------------------------------------------

Cut brownies into squares, stack between layer of wax or parchment paper and place in freezer.**

 Mold ice cream into individual portions and freeze overnight. This can be accomplished a number of ways - you can either use an ice cream scoop to scoop directly onto the top of the frozen brownies and freeze them together on a parchment lined baking sheet, or, if you lack freezer space like me, you can make molds using the bottoms cut out of plastic cups lined with plastic wrap.  These can then be stacked in your freezer and unmolded before being placed on top of the frozen brownies.

Cover generously with meringue - making sure to cover the ice cream entirely. Place in a preheated 450F oven for 3-5 minutes until the meringue is golden OR forget about the oven (and the warn brownie and simply brown the outside of the meringue with a kitchen torch.

Carefully transfer to individual plates and dig in!

**If using the torch method, I don't recommend freezing the brownie as there is no opportunity for it to thaw, and nobody wants to eat a frozen brownie...

A pdf of the challenge recipe can be found here.

Nutrition Facts, calculated with the Recipe Calculator
Serving size: 1 completed dessert - will vary depending on ice cream and brownie recipe used

Calories 620.1
Total Fat 35.5 g
Total Carbohydrate 80.4 g
Dietary Fiber 2.9 g
Sugars 61.5 g
Protein 8.6 g