S'Mores Baked Alaska
Let's make a s'mores version of a Baked Alaska from scratch! You can adapt this for different food allergy or dietary preference (if you have questions, just comment to let me know about potential substitutions), and make it as much from scratch as you'd like, or use or alternate store-bought ingredients and components.
Ingredients:
No-churn ice cream:
100g cream cheese (regular, not fat free), cold
225g heavy whipping cream, cold
140g sweetened condensed milk, cold
graham cracker cookie butter (let me know if you’d like a video/recipe, otherwise, you can use store-bought cookie butter or just omit), around 1/2 cup
graham crackers (as much or as little as you’d like, but around 6), crumbled
Italian meringue:
3 egg whites, room temperature
150g sugar
180g light corn syrup
80g water
Chocolate cake: you can use your favorite recipe or use box mix
Supplies:
Bowl with an opening at least slightly bigger than 6” inches in diameter
Hand mixer or stand mixer with a whisk attachment
Candy thermometer (if you’re making Italian meringue)
Cling wrap
Helpful: food processor (to grind up the graham crackers), rubber spatula (for scraping down the sides of the bowl), brûlée torch
Steps:
Bake a chocolate cake into a 6” round pan (you can do this up to a few days in advance, from scratch using your favorite chocolate cake recipe, or, using a box mix and having some extra cake you can use and frost separately, make cake pops, whatever you like!), and chill completely if you’re using it the same day as you’re making the no-churn ice cream.
To make the no-churn ice cream, whip the cream cheese in the bowl a little bit to smooth it out. Scrape down the sides and pour in the heavy whipping cream.
Whip the cream cheese and whipping cream together until you have soft peaks (when you take the whisk out, with the mixture on it, it’s stiff enough so that it stays on the whisk, but slopes down rather than sticking straight up).
Add the condensed milk and whip on high until you have stiff peaks (the mixture will completely hold its shape on the whisk).
Add in the graham cracker crumble and give it a mix.
Swirl a few dollops of graham cracker cookie butter (or use store bought cookie butter, or, you can omit this if you want).
Spray the inside of your bowl with non-stick spray to help move the cling wrap you’ll use to line the bowl, that overhangs from the sides (this makes it easy to lift the frozen dessert out of the pan after) before filling the mixture into it.
Place the cake on the top, in the center, and press down so that the top of the cake is flush with the top level of ice cream.
Cover the top of the exposed ice cream and cake with cling wrap, so that it touches the mixture so that no moisture or ice forms on the top. Freeze for around 4-6 hours, or overnight.
Once it’s set, you can make the meringue (or, you can buy Marshmallow Fluff if you prefer). Start by whipping the room temperature egg whites until you have soft peaks.
In the meantime, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water into a small pot and give it a stir to incorporate everything.
Attach your candy thermometer, and on a medium-low heat bring it to 240F
While your mixer is slowly stirring, gently stream the hot sugar syrup in gradually, until it’s all added.
Start to turn the speed of the mixer up until it’s on full high speed and mix until you have glossy stiff peaks, and what looks like meringue.
Remove the bowl with ice cream and cake, peel away the cling wrap and pop it out from the bowl by gently inverting it onto a plate.
Using a spatula or spook, fully coat the ice cream dome with the meringue.
Optional (but encouraged), torch the outside of the meringue.
Cut and enjoy! You can store any leftovers as-is on the plate in the freezer, but, it can even be kept in the fridge for a softer texture (the “ice cream” will not melt). Using a little cling wrap, just seal in any exposed cake/ice cream to keep it from drying out.