Strawberries Baked Alaska simply delicious
Naturally, spring a good time for planting, but summer and autumn also possible
This recipe celebrates one of the first — and sweetest — harbingers of spring: local strawberries. Sure, the supermarket offers strawberries all year ‘round, but the gems that are grown locally and show up in season boast way more flavour than their cousins from the other side of the world. What you’re looking for is a bright red colour from stem to tip.
These local heroes are perfect even if you eat them raw, but here I’ve gussied them up quite a bit with some borrowings from an old-fashioned dessert called Baked Alaska, the basics of which are spongecake and ice cream frosted with a thick layer of meringue and briefly set under the broiler.
A generation ago, Baked Alaska was as much showbiz as it was dessert, doused in alcohol and set aflame just before your cruiseship waiter paraded it through the dining room on a platter and landed it on your table with a flourish.
I’ve kept the ice cream, swapped out the cake for the crushed cookie of your choice, added strawberries to the mix and finished it with the key ingredient: meringue, a.k.a. beaten egg whites and sugar.
A few notes about making a successful stiff meringue: first, the fresher the egg whites, the better; fresh egg whites produce more volume.
Second, let the whites come to room temperature before beating. (If you’re in a rush, just set the metal bowl in a larger bowl of hot water, which will warm it up quickly.) Third, be sure to beat the whites in a small clean bowl, preferably stainless steel (which is easy to get very clean), because any kind of fat will deflate them. Finally, add the sugar slowly in a steady stream. After all the sugar is added, keep beating until the peaks are stiff.
Strawberries Baked Alaska
Start to finish: 30 minutes Servings: 4 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream 10 medium to large strawberries 1 large egg white at room temperature Pinch of cream of tartar 3 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon sugar, divided 1 1/2 teaspoons Grand Marnier or balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup crushed gingersnaps or cookies of your choice Mint sprigs for garnish
Using a melon baller, scoop out 12 balls from the container of ice cream, put them on a plate, cover them with plastic wrap and freeze them while you prepare the rest of the recipe.
Cut the leaves from the top of each strawberry. Cut four of the strawberries into 1/4-inch pieces and in a bowl toss them with 1/2 teaspoon sugar and the Grand Marnier.
Halve the remaining strawberries lengthwise and, using a melon baller, scoop out a hollow on the cut side of each strawberry half (this is where you will put the ice cream ball). Cut a tiny sliver off the other side of each strawberry half so the half will lay flat when the cut side is up.
In a small bowl, beat the egg white on medium speed with electric beaters. When it is foamy, add the cream of tartar. Continue beating the egg white until it holds soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining three tablespoons sugar in a stream, beating the whole time. Increase the speed to high and continue beating until the meringue holds stiff peaks.
Preheat the broiler. Position an oven rack about six inches from the flame. Arrange the strawberries on a rimmed sheet pan with two or three inches between them. Fill the hollow of each strawberry half with a ball of ice cream. Working quickly, spoon the meringue over the ice cream and top of the cut strawberry and spread it out with a small offset spatula or butter knife, making little peaks with the meringue if desired.
Place the sheet pan on the rack set six inches from the broiler and broil the strawberries for 45 seconds to one minute or until the meringue is lightly browned. Transfer three strawberries to each of four plates. Spoon a mound of the marinated strawberries next to them, sprinkle the cookie crumbs over the plate and garnish with a sprig of mint. Serve right away.
Sara Moulton is host of public television’s Sara’s Weeknight Meals.x She was executive chef at Gourmet magazine for nearly 25 years and spent a decade hosting several Food Network shows including Cooking Live. Her latest cookbook is HomeCooking 101.
Given how quickly strawberries begin to bear fruit and how easily they are grown, it’s a wonder that strawberry beds aren’t as common in backyards as lawns are in front yards.
The most compelling reason to grow strawberries is, of course, flavour. Variety selection and premature harvest make grocers’ berries large and firm, but usually not much else. In your backyard, though, you can grow the most flavourful varieties, and wait to pick them until they’re sweet and oozing strawberry-ness. At that point, perishability doesn’t matter because the berries need not travel further than arm’s length to your mouth or a basket.
Types of strawberries
Depending on how soon you want to start eating strawberries, choose between “everbearers” and “junebearers.”
Everbearers offer the quickest crops, less than three months after planting, and bear all season long. Tristar is among the best of these types. Some of the older types bear in spring and fall only.
Junebearers come in greater variety and yield more, but wait to bear their first crop until the year after planting. Once started, they bear once per season, in spring or early summer. Planting two or more different junebearing varieties can extend the harvest.
Spring is a good time to plant strawberries, although they can also be planted in late summer or fall — if you can get plants then.
Your new plants might look forlorn, but don’t worry. They soon grow new roots and leaves. In fact, you can shear their roots back to three or four inches long with a scissors so you can more easily fan them out in the planting hole. Adjust the planting depth carefully, leaving only the top half-inch of the crown exposed so that it neither dries out from exposure nor suffocates from burial.
Ever wonder how such a luscious fruit came to be called “strawberry”? The name might reflect the plants’ habit of strewing about with runners, which are horizontal stems punctuated along their length by daughter plants. The daughter plants eventually root and make their own runners.
The name “strawberry” might also come from a centuries-old favourite mulch for strawberries: straw. No matter how the strawberry got its name, the plants love to be mulched. Mulch keeps the soil moist, suppresses weeds and keeps the fruit cleaner. Give strawberries a year-round, organic mulch.
Adopt a planting system
Spacing for strawberry plants depends on your method of growing them.
With the “hill system,” you plant them close together — nine inches apart in a double row, with nine inches between rows — and avoid future crowding by pinching off all runners. More plants are needed to get started, but initial yields are highest. This system is especially suited to those junebearing varieties that naturally develop fewer runners, and to everbearers.
With the “matted row system,” you set plants at wide spacing — 24 inches apart in single rows, with four feet between rows — and allow plants to make runners like crazy. Fewer plants are needed to get started, but the first crop is smaller than with the hill system.
Never allow the mat of mother and daughter plants to spread wider than 18 inches, and periodically thin out crowded plants.
No matter which system you adopt, pinch off all flowers that appear during the month after planting in order to coax plants to put their energy into growing strong roots. One advantage of everbearers is that they continue to flower after that month of pinching, which means you get to pick fruits later this season from this spring’s planting!