Healthy Recipes: Baked Alaska Warms New Years’ Eve

By Dana Jacobi 
for the American Institute for Cancer Research

On New Year’s Eve, I used to host soirees featuring smoked salmon, caviar and blini. These days, they have become a family-friendly evening that is an open house where we share a sweet dessert potluck.

The menu usually includes an assortment of homemade brownies, kid-decorated cookies in electric colors, a big fruit salad and outrageously expensive baked goods from New York’s finest patisseries. This year, for example, someone promises to bring to-die-for chef-made French macaroons, the chic sweet of the moment.

My contribution is always Baked Alaska, an impressive culinary sleight of hand that actually requires little skill. The alchemy in this seemingly magic “baked ice cream” relies on a basic principle – the meringue and cake are both poor conductors of heat. As a result, they insulate the ice cream while the meringue swathing it browns in a hot oven.

Making a Baked Alaska requires just five ingredients, all sold at the supermarket. It takes a few, simple steps done over several hours.Most of these can be done a day or two before the Alaska is served.

I use a store-bought frozen loaf cake for the slabs that form the base of this dessert. If you like, though, make your cake from scratch, using any favorite recipe, such as a tender sponge cake. In place of ice cream, these days, I prefer to use sorbet, which makes a lighter, more colorful Baked Alaska. It also happens to be fat-free.

If serving raw egg concerns you, use pasteurized dried egg whites or the sole brand of liquid whites that whips, Eggcology. Like raw whites, both produce a satiny, marshmallow cloud of meringue that gains a glorious golden-brown halo in the heat of the oven.

Alternative sorbet flavor combinations are mango-strawberry and peach-raspberry. Avoid lemon or passion fruit sorbet: their acidity does not taste good with the meringue.

Baked Alaska

1. Cover cake rack with foil.
2. Slice off domed top of pound cake and set aside for another use. Slice remaining cake in half horizontally. Place bottom slice on foil-covered rack. Using large tablespoon and working it sideways, scoop chocolate sorbet from container in large “chips.” Place sorbet “chips” on top of cake to completely cover it. Smooth sorbet with back of spoon or your fingers. Sorbet layer should be an even, 1-inch layer. Place cake and sorbet in freezer, uncovered, to solidify, 2 hours.
3. Remove cake with sorbet layer from freezer. Set the second cake layer on top of it, then spread the raspberry sorbet over the cake. Set in the freezer to solidify, 2 hours.
4. Cover the assembled sorbet and cake with plastic wrap, pressing it firmly against the sorbet. (If you are working ahead, this will keep in freezer for 2 days.)
5. Set oven rack in lower third of oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
6. Place egg whites in large mixing bowl. On slow speed, beat whites until frothy. Add cream of tartar, and increase mixing speed to high. When egg whites look white, sprinkle in sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating 10 seconds between additions. Beat until egg whites are glossy and form stiff peaks, about 8 minutes. They will resemble marshmallow.
7. Using metal spatula, spread meringue to cover sides of frozen loaf in a thick layer, then mound remaining meringue over top. Spread meringue with spatula, using swirling motion over top and sides for attractive presentation. (Or scoop meringue into pastry bag fitted with star tip. Pipe it to cover loaf, working vertically around the sides, then horizontally over the top.)
8. Fill large, shallow baking dish with ice cubes. Set on oven rack. Place rack with Baked Alaska on top of ice. Bake until meringue is lightly colored, with darker color on ridges and points, 6 to 8 minutes, watching it carefully. Immediately, use sharp knife to slice Baked Alaska. Serve with fresh raspberries.

Makes 8 servings.

Per serving (includes raspberries): 320 calories, 7 g total fat (1.5 g saturated fat),
58 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein, 5 g dietary fiber, 210 mg sodium.

***

The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is the cancer charity that fosters research on the relationship of nutrition, physical activity and weight management to cancer risk, interprets the scientific literature and educates the public about the results. It has contributed more than $91 million for innovative research conducted at universities, hospitals and research centers across the country. AICR has published two landmark reports that interpret the accumulated research in the field, and is committed to a process of continuous review. AICR also provides a wide range of educational programs to help millions of Americans learn to make dietary changes for lower cancer risk. Its award-winning New American Plate program is presented in brochures, seminars and on its website, www.aicr.org. AICR is a member of the World Cancer Research Fund International.

from aicr.org