Friday, August 27, 2010

Sweet Baby Baked Alaskas



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”.
Thank you Elissa for such a fun challenge! Now on to the recipes :)


Originally I had been thinking of doing a cookie dough ice cream because browned butter makes me think of chocolate chip cookies all warm from the oven and soft and wonderful....Sorry, I was having a moment. Ok so that night after finding out what the new challenge would be I was telling my BSM (Big Sexy Man) what flavor I was planning for the ice cream when he sweetly looks at me with his big gorgeous brown eyes and asks, "Can it be peanut butter cup ice cream instead?" How do you say no when your man is giving you "the look"? Obviously I said yes which meant I had to find a peanut butter ice cream recipe. Lucky for me lots of fellow bloggers have David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop" and in it is a peanut butter ice cream recipe, which I found here. The only adjustment I made was adding almost twice the amount of peanut butter cups. YUM :)


After the ice cream was well on its way to delicious scoopableness (yes that is a word, ok maybe not in the dictionary but it should be) I started on the browned butter pound cake. Since mini Baked Alaskas was what I was after, cupcake size is what I made. Aren't they cute? Wait did someone take a bite outta that lil guy?! (chewing) That's shocking! (still chewing)

Brown Butter Pound Cake



19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.
2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.


Meringue (For the Baked Alaska)




8 large egg whites
½ teaspoon (3g) cream of tartar
½ teaspoon (3g) salt
1 cup (220g) sugar


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.


 
If you can't tell from the melting ice cream on the pan I did not have a torch and had to throw them in the oven to toast the meringue. Melting ice cream aside I thought they were a huge success and so much fun to make.
 
 
I'm guessin my BSM and my parents liked it because everyone was pretty quiet after the first forkful. And then our plates looked like this.
 
 
On a side note I thought I'd share our wonderful new addition, our beautiful adorable niece Brielle. I can't wait to give that sweet baby face some ice cream in a few months. Sadly she is still too tiny for any good food yet.
 
 
Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!
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43 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "baby" alaskas are just so cute (so is your niece!) I think all of the ice cream suggestions sound good, but I love the different shades of brown you get with the peanut butter ice cream.

shelley c. said...

Those look great - I love the idea of mini Baked Alaskas - perfect individual portions. And YUM - peanut butter, peanut butter cup ice cream- sounds delicious!!

Oh, and congrats on the new niece - she is beautiful!

Unknown said...

Mmmm...peanut butter...love! Your baby cakes look just adorable...as are those baby cheeks at the bottom. :-)

LittleRed said...

Peanut butter, what a great flavour choice. Love the size too....very cute, but hard to compete with the cuteness of your new niece:)

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Those mini alaskas are really so very pretty. Peanut butter, and peanut butter ice-cream, now that's got to be tasty.

Joyti said...

Wow, that sounds INCREDIBLE! Peanut butter ice cream...there's a flavor I dont think that I have tried :)

alice said...

That sounds like a delicious take on the challenge. As soon as you said peanut butter ice cream I thought of reeses pieces and now have a serious craving for some!

What a beautiful niece. I'm sure she'll have great fun helping you to messily eat up all of your DB challenges in a year or so!

Christina said...

Thank you ladies for the lovely comments :) I loved seeing everyones completed challenge. Makes me want some ice cream now :)

KV said...

I love the cupcake idea with the pound cake, I'll have to think of that for the future

Jeanne said...

I bet the peanut butter cup ice cream was just wonderful with the flavor of brown butter cake! Excellent job on this challenge! Congrats on your new niece, she's adorable!

Unknown said...

Mmmm Peanut butter cup ice cream! Sounds amazing. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving such kind words! :)

Joseph's Grainery Recipes said...

I would've gobbled them up too!

Suz said...

I love your baby Alaskas! That peanut butter ice cream sounds heavenly and I like your thinking RE adding extra peanut butter cups. When I make this ice cream (and that's definitely a when, not if) I'll do the same. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Your finished Alaskas look absolutely gorgeous, and so does your niece. She's beautiful. :)

shewhisks said...

Lol@ the pic of the cake with the bite! Lovin' the humour in ur blog too and GORGEOUS mini alaskas! :-) Brielle is such a nice name, perfect for such a cutie!!

The Betz Family said...

Peanut butter cup sounds yummy! Nice job on the challenge!

Anonymous said...

Peanut butter cup ice cream sounds DIVINE! Terrific work!

Evelyne CulturEatz said...

Very cute pointy baked alaska. Hope your niece likes peanut butter!

Anonymous said...

Cupcake sized pound cakes! They look so cute :) Great challenge! :)

anchan said...

Oooooh, peanut butter ice-cream sounds heavenly... and your mini alaskas look perfect! Lovely photos - my favourite is the last one! xxx

Emily said...

Those are the cutest little baked alaskas ever! I want one. :)

Charley said...

Peanut butter cup or cookie dough, you can't go wrong. I bet they were great. As I said on another blog, I am impressed by any DB who made inidividual Baked Alaskas...especially when the actually worked out. Great work.

Heather said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. Peanut butter icecream sounds devine - I'm going to try that recipe

Not Quite Nigella said...

Haha I know what you mean by "the look". It's very hard to resist when they are interested in food! Yours looks fantastic! :D

Anonymous said...

These baby baked Alaskas are gorgeous! My favourite for this month round up! Peanut butter ice-cream sounds like heaven to me :-)

Anonymous said...

Wow - that peanut butter cup ice cream sounds incredible! (...yet another one of those things I can't get in Australia that often...) The oven method is a bit more precarious - the hardest part for us was after pulling them out of the oven working out how to transfer them to serving plates. Your desserts look great! (BTW - love the Daring Kitchen napkins!) - Jen =)

Anonymous said...

Oh David Lebevotiz's pb ice cream recipe is my all time favorite! Good choice. The first time I gave my nephew ice cream when he was a baby, it was raspberry chocolate chip, and as soon as it was in his mouth he started laughing. Joy at first bite!

Christina said...

Thank you everyone :) The peanut butter did taste pretty great with the pound cake, especially as the ice cream melted into the cake. Kinda like browned butter peanut butter blondies. And the last picture is definitely my favorite too :)

Manu said...

I loved the idea to make mini baked alaska!
So cute! And looks delicious too!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Those look so pretty! Very well done.

Your niece is so sweet.

Cheers,

Rosa

lo81 said...

I love your idea of choosing peanut butter ice cream for your alaskas...so yummy! Well done!

Unknown said...

I love your mini baked alaskas! That's a great idea! And yes, the cookie dough icecream is perfect with the browned butter cake however as a peanut butter lover, I'm drooling over your icecream! Thanks for visiting my blog. I love yours! I will be following!

Renata said...

I always love the tiny desserts! Yours are so lovely. Your niece is adorable!

Jenni said...

Great job! Your mini baked alaskas are so cute - and sound delicious!

julie said...

Your baked alaska turned out perfect! they are so darned cute! My plate would have been licked clean if I was there as well. Congrats on a successful challenge!

Sarah said...

A very clever idea to make pound cake muffins. :) Nice one!

Ann Minard said...

Yours are beautiful as well. I am not so good with a piping bag yet. It's funny to find your blog because I was just thinking to myself that Pain Au Chocolate (Chocolate Croissant) would be a wonderful next Bakers Challenge don't you think? How lucky your niece is to have an Aunt like you to introduce her to new foods one day!

Christina said...

Thank you :) I love tiny or mini versions of bigger desserts. That's not to say that I don't love the large versions, but sometimes you just need a lil bit of something sweet.

Ann Minard - I LOVE pain au chocolat! When I went to France I seriously ate like 3 or 4 a day.

Cakelaw said...

Your mini baked alaskas look devine - and peanut butter cup icecream sounds amazing! Brielle is gorgeous.

Sandra said...

wow, this is a great idea, I find that making 'baby' versions just make everything taste better :)

Tracy said...

These tiny baked Alaskas are SO cute! Wonderful job on the challenge!

Anonymous said...

I love your mini version! Very nicely done :)

Beth said...

I love your baked alaskas. And your niece is adorable!

Ms. Morgan said...

I love the cookies on a stick - I'm surprised this is the 1st time I've seen that. Seems like such a great idea. I'll have to give it a try soon.

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