Baked Alaska with Rum Raisin Ice Cream

                                                              Baked Alaska

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The Silver Fox and I will be celebrating a landmark anniversary next weekend. I'll not be cooking for the occasion but in anticipation of the event, he asked me to make a Baked Alaska for him. I was more than happy to oblige because it gave me an excuse to make one of my favorite ice creams, a smooth and rich rum raisin concoction that is made with the world's happiest raisins. You'd be happy, too, if you spent a day immersed in that amount of rum. Baked Alaska is an old dessert that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. It sounds difficult to make but nothing could be farther from the truth. The dessert has three distinct stages and all but the final toasting can be done a day ahead of time. I made the ice cream and the sponge layer for the cake I'm featuring tonight, but both could have been purchased at the grocery store and used in the assembly of the baked Alaska. Time is the only trick to successfully making this dessert. I generally assemble the cake, including the unbaked meringue covering, the day before I plan to serve it. It goes into the freezer and stays there until 15 minutes before I plan to put it in the oven. It takes minutes to brown the meringue, and because this is such a festive dessert I go one step further and flame it at the table. Children, and the Silver Fox, love this dessert. It is amazingly versatile and any flavor cake or ice cream can be used to assemble it. If you are looking for something that is festive and a bit out of the ordinary, do give this recipe a try. The ice cream, which comes from Saveur magazine, is especially delicious. Here is how the Baked Alaska is made.

Rum Raisin Ice Cream...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Saveur magazine

Ingredients:
1 cup raisins
1 cup dark rum
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Place raisins and rum in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit until raisins soften and absorb rum, at least 8 hours or overnight. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons rum. Set raisins and rum aside.
2) Place sugar and yolks in a large saucepan and whisk until pale yellow and lightened slightly, about 2 minutes. Add milk, and stir until smooth. Place over medium heat, and cook, stirring often, until mixture thickens and coats back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Pour through a fine strainer into a large bowl. Whisk in drained raisins along with reserved rum, cream, and vanilla. Cover custard with plastic wrap, pressing it against the surface of custard, and refrigerate until chilled.
3) Pour custard into an ice cream maker, and process according to manufacturer's instructions until churned and thick. Line a 7″-diameter bowl with a 15″ piece of plastic wrap, allowing excess to hang over rim of bowl. Pack ice cream into bowl, smoothing top, and freeze until solid, at least 4 hours. Yield: about 6 cups.

Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
Unsalted butter, for pan
1/2 cup cake flour, plus more for pan
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8″ round cake pan; set aside.
2) Whisk together flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.
3) Beat sugar and eggs in bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high speed until tripled in volume, about 5 minutes. Stir in juice and zest and fold in flour. Pour into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool completely, invert onto a rack, and set aside. Yield: 1 layer.

Meringue

Ingredients:
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
4 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:
Place cream of tartar and egg whites in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar and beat until stiff but not dry peaks form.

Final Assembly

To serve, place cake on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Invert ice cream onto cake and peel off plastic. Cover ice cream and cake with meringue. Bake until meringue begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Using 2 metal spatulas, transfer to a cake plate and serve immediately. Yield: 8 servings.









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Glazed Cream Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This lovely dessert is one of my personal favorites. Despite my love for it, I don't make it all that often. It's not hard to do, but it's time consuming to assemble and I tend to prepare it only for close friends or special occasions. The cake has the same elements as Boston cream pie, but over the years it's been refined and its various components now represent the "best of show" from different places. The sponge layers, génoise, come from Italy, the crème pâtissière is, of course, French, as is the glaze, a rich dark chocolate ganache that's interpreted here by Alton Brown. It is a thoroughly satisfying dessert that I think you'll really enjoy. Final assembly is simple. Two sponge layers are filled with pastry cream and glazed with ganache. Here are the recipes for all three of its elements.

Génoise...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Jacques Torres

Ingredients:
8 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons honey
2 cups unbleached, pastry flour, sifted

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
2) Place a 1-quart saucepan half filled with water over high heat and bring it to a simmer. Make a double boiler by setting a large mixing bowl over simmering water. Place whole eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and honey in mixing bowl and make an egg foam by whisking mixture to 113 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 7 to 10 minutes. When it is thick, it will be hot to the touch, tripled in volume, and light in color and sugar will have completely dissolved. If you dip a whisk into mixture and pull it out, batter should fall back into bowl in a thick ribbon.
3) Remove mixing bowl from heat and whip batter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until it cools, increases in volume, stiffens slightly and becomes pale yellow, about 7 to 10 minutes. Very, very carefully, fold in flour with a rubber spatula until it is no longer visible, making sure to fold to bottom of bowl. Do not over mix or batter will deflate. Fill prepared pans with batter.
4) Transfer to oven and bake on center rack until well-risen and golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Let layers cool slightly. Unmold, remove parchment paper and finish cooling on a wire rack. Layers can be stored in the freezer for 2 to 3 weeks if well wrapped in plastic wrap. Return it to room temperature before using it.

Crème Pâtissière - French Pastry Cream...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Julia Child

Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or 1/2 tablespoon vanilla combined with 2 tablespoons dark rum

Directions:
1) Place egg yolks in a 2-1/2 quart saucepan. Gradually beat in the sugar with a wire whip and beat until mixture is thick, pale yellow, and forms ribbons. Beat in flour, then beat in hot milk in a thin stream.
2) Set over moderately high heat and stir slowly and continuously with a wire whip, reaching all over bottom and sides of pan, until mixture thickens. As it turns lumpy, beat vigorously to smooth it out.
3) Lower temperature and continue stirring for several minutes to cook flour and thicken cream. Be very careful about scorching cream in bottom of pan; be sure your pan is heavy, be sure to keep stirring, and do not use high heat, particularly after cream has started to thicken.
4) Remove from heat; beat in butter and the flavoring. Clean off sides of the pan with a spatula. Film top of the pastry cream with 1/2 tablespoon milk, rum or kirsch to prevent crusting. Chill. (Pastry cream will keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated.)

Ganache...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Alton Brown

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons corn syrup
6 ounces heavy cream
12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Combine corn syrup and heavy cream in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and add chocolate. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract. Cool to room temperature. Pour over cold cake.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Boston Cream Pie - Felice in the Kitchen
Boston Cream Whoopie Pies - Baking and Boys!
Individual Boston Cream Pies - Pastry Studio
Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes - Baking Powders
Deluxe Boston Cream Pie - Eat Me, Delicious
Boston Cream Pie - Annie's Eats