epicurious4.2
Baked Alaska Saint Pierre
Truly showstopping, baked Alaska is an exercise in contradictions: the flaming, meringue-coated confection houses layers of ice cream and cake within.
👥 10 Servings⏱️ Prep & Cook: 5h🔥 Cook: 1h 30m👤 The Gourmet Test Kitchen📖 epicurious
🥘 Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you prepare them:
🍳 Cookware
- ●pan
- ●bowl
- ●wooden spoon
- ●oven
- ●pot
- ●mixing bowl
- ●knife
- ●baking sheet
- ●spatula
📝 Preparation Steps
1
Make filling:
2
Beat marmalade into vanilla ice cream in a bowl with a wooden spoon until combined, then spread in an 8-inch cake pan. Spread sorbet in other 8-inch cake pan. Cover pans with plastic wrap and freeze until firm, at least ⏱️ 3 hours.
3
Make génoise:
4
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch cake pan and line bottom with a round of parchment paper, then butter paper.
5
Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
6
Heat eggs and sugar in a large metal bowl set over a pot of simmering water, gently whisking constantly, until lukewarm and sugar is dissolved.
7
Remove bowl from pot and add zest and liqueur, then beat with an electric mixer at high speed until very thick, pale, and tripled in volume (about ⏱️ 7 minutes in a stand mixer or ⏱️ 10 minutes with a handheld). If using a tall narrow bowl, transfer to a large wide mixing bowl (to facilitate folding). Resift flour and salt over eggs in 2 batches, folding gently but thoroughly after each batch. Fold butter into about 1 cup batter in a small bowl until just combined, then fold butter mixture into remaining batter gently but thoroughly until just combined. Spread in buttered pan, smoothing top to an even layer.
8
Bake cake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about ⏱️ 15 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack ⏱️ 5 minutes, then run a thin knife between cake and side of pan and invert rack over cake. Flip cake onto rack and cool completely. Peel off paper.
9
Cut cake horizontally in half with a long serrated knife to form 2 layers, then tightly wrap each layer in plastic wrap and freeze ⏱️ 30 minutes.
10
Put 1 cake layer on plate or inverted cake pan (at least 10 inches, but small enough to fit in your freezer). Dip pan containing vanilla ice cream mixture in a large bowl of hot water briefly to loosen, 5 to ⏱️ 7 seconds (have a kitchen towel ready to wipe off water), and unmold ice cream onto cake. Top vanilla ice cream layer with second cake layer, cut side up. Unmold sorbet layer onto cake in same manner and freeze ice cream cake until firm, about ⏱️ 1 hour.
11
Make meringue:
12
Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt in a large bowl with cleaned beaters at moderately high speed until foamy, then add cream of tartar and continue to beat until whites hold soft peaks. Add sugar a little at a time, beating, and continue beating until whites just hold stiff, glossy peaks. Beat in vanilla.
large egg whites (egg yolks reserved for another purpose)7
13
Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.
14
Transfer frozen cake (still on plate or inverted cake pan) to a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper and spread meringue over cake, making it at least 1 inch thick and mounding it on top. Make an indentation with a tablespoon in center of meringue deep enough to fit eggshell. Bake cake until edges are lightly browned, about ⏱️ 5 minutes. Carefully transfer cake to a serving plate using 2 metal spatulas and place eggshell in indentation. Pour liqueur into eggshell and carefully ignite with a long match or kitchen torch. Spoon flaming liqueur evenly over meringue (flaming liqueur will brown meringue a little more). Remove eggshell and serve baked Alaska immediately.
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