By Vicky Ismail, Executive Chef and Owner of Highgrove
As I plan for the Valentines dinner coming up here at
Highgrove I want to create a whimsical yet romantic dessert that will honor the
“Cruising For Clues” Murder Mystery theme (you can make your reservations at the bottom of today's blog).
Baked Alaska seems like a perfect fit! It’s fairly simple to
make and definitely something that makes a grand entrance – especially when you
can turn the lights out and pop sparklers into them! It’s heat on the outside
creamy meringue layer then you hit the burst of ice cream and soft cake at the
bottom.
It’s fairly simple to execute - you just need to plan in
advance.
We’ll be making individual cakes for each guest. These were
inspired by bite size ones I did for an appreciation event with all one-bite
foods – start to finish.
The key to any great recipe is to use the best ingredients
you can find and afford.
This vanilla sponge cake will be brushed with a chocolate
ganache cut with Godiva liquor and topped with our house made chocolate ice
cream. Who wouldn’t like that?
CAKE
6 T unsalted butter, melted and slightly warm, 4 for the
cake, 2 for the pan
2 cups White Lilly all purpose flour
8 large eggs, room temperature
1-cup cane sugar
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
½ teaspoon kosher salt
FOR CAKE
Preheat oven to 375 and grease a half sheet pan. Lay a piece
of parchment and grease the paper then dust with flour.
Fill a medium saucepan one-third full of hot water and bring
to a simmer.
In a stand mixer bowl whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla
seeds and set the bowl over the simmering water. Make sure the bowl does not
touch the water. Continue to whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved and
the mixture begins to thicken, and the eggs are hot to the touch.
Transfer the bowl to the mixer and attach the whisk, and
whip on medium speed until the mixture begins to gain volume. Increase the
speed to high and whip until it triples in volume and is cool to the touch.
Transfer the egg mixture into a large mixing bowl.
Sift one-fourth of the flour over the egg mixture and
sprinkle the salt over the flour.
Fold the flour gently in long, slow strokes. Continue adding the flour in three more
additions rotating the bowl one turn with each addition. Drizzle the 4
tablespoons melted butter over the batter and fold from the outside with long
slow strokes.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 16 – 18
minutes until it is golden brown and springy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife
around the edges of the cake and invert onto a cooling rack or parchment paper
on the counter.
Use a cookie cutter to cut any shape you like for your baked
Alaska cake base.
Cut as many cakes as you can get out of the sheet pan. If
desired spread a thin layer of chocolate sauce on the base.
ICE –CREAM
Buy 1 quart your favorite brand. We’ll be using chocolate
for our valentine’s event – today I tried strawberry.
Using a 2 oz scoop or a tablespoon, place three even scoops
or spoons of ice cream on the cut out cake base.
MERINGUE
5 egg whites – room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
In a double boiler or metal bowl over a small pot, mix egg
whites and sugar until they are no longer gritty and reach a safe temperature
of at least 160 degrees.
Pour the heated sugar and egg white mixture into a mixing
bowl and whisk on low for 5 minutes then increase speed to high for 5 more
minutes until it is thick enough to pipe and holds a stiff peak.
If you don’t have a piping bag and decorative tip to pipe on
the meringue you can spread the meringue mixture with a butter knife sealing
the edges of the cake and swirl to make peaks. Almost done!
Torch the top of the cake with a small torch to get the
edges brown and crisp.
An alternative is to bake in a 500 degree oven for 2-3
minutes to get a nice brown shell. Turn
the lights down – add a sparkler and take bow!
Crusin' For
Clues
Valentines Murder Mystery Dinner
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2015 |
6:30PM-9:30PM
Are you looking to attend a "killer"
of an event? If so, then you need to join us as we host a murder mystery dinner
with entertainment provided by It's A Mystery, a local acting troupe as featured in Southern Living Magazine.
