Banoffee Alaska
SERVES 12 PREP AND COOK TIME 1 HOUR
PLUS COOLING & FREEZING CALORIES 444KCAL, FAT 18.6G, SAT FAT 9G, PROTEIN 7.2G, CARBS 62.1G, SUGARS 47.3G, SALT 0.3G, FIBRE 1.1G
I had this idea to marry off two of my favourite desserts – banoffee pie and baked Alaska, which means you get creamy cold vanilla ice cream in the middle of a delicious warm tart. And let me tell you, this marriage is blooming amazing!
150g unsalted butter (cold), plus extra for greasing
1 orange
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
100g ground almonds
6 large eggs
1 x 500g tub of quality vanilla ice cream
¼ cup dulce de leche or caramel sauce 300g caster sugar
2 large ripe bananas
1 lime
3 teaspoons coffee & chicory essence
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a deep, 25cm loose-bottomed tart tin. To make the pastry, finely grate the orange zest into a food processor, add the cold butter, the flour, almonds and 1 egg, then blitz until it comes together into a ball of dough, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes. Roll out on a clean flour-dusted surface until just under
½cm thick, then loosely roll up around the rolling pin and unroll over the tart tin, easing it in and pushing it carefully into the sides. Trim off any excess, patch up any holes, then prick the base with a fork, cover and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes (use any leftovers for mince pies). When the time’s up, line the pastry case with baking paper, then fill with rice, making sure you pack it right out to the sides.
Bake blind for 15 minutes, remove the baking paper and rice and bake for another 5 minutes, or until lightly golden, then leave to cool. Soften your ice cream in the fridge.
2 Once the pastry case is cool, spread the dulce de leche or caramel across the base, scoop over the ice cream and freeze until frozen solid – you could get it up to this stage a day in advance. Turn the oven up to 220°C. To make your meringue topping, separate the remaining 5 eggs (keep the yolks for another day). In a free- standing mixer, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of sea salt until they form soft peaks. Place the sugar and 80ml of water in a small pan on a high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then do not stir again. Use a sugar thermometer to monitor it getting up to 110°C, then reduce the temperature to low. Let it gently bubble until it gets up to 120°C. Remove from the heat and let the bubbles settle for 30 seconds, then very gradually pour it into the egg whites, whisking constantly on a low speed. Leave it whisking for 10 minutes to cool and thicken the mixture. Meanwhile, peel and slice the bananas, finely grate over the lime zest and squeeze over the juice, then toss together.
3 Get your tart out of the freezer, arrange the bananas over the ice cream, then pile on the meringue in nice peaks. Use a fork to ripple through drips of coffee & chicory essence. Bake on the bottom of the oven for just 4 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly golden, leaving the ice cream frozen inside. Remove from tin, and serve.