**The Baked Alaska Challenge: A Comparative Analysis**

As I gazed at the beautifully piped meringue on Martha Stewart's Baked Alaska, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe and respect for this iconic dessert. The first thing that struck me was the Italian flair, reminiscent of old-school Italian cuisine, particularly Cesare Casella. The recipe, however, was unmistakably American, with a twist of French elegance.

**Martha Stewart's Baked Alaska**

As I took my first bite, I was immediately struck by the familiar yet refined flavors of Martha's creation. Her use of French Meringue, whipped to perfection in a stand mixer, gave way to a silky-smooth cloud-like texture that was both delightful and intimidating. The addition of cream of tartar added an extra layer of stability, making this meringue truly exceptional.

As we compared our baked alaskas, it became clear that Martha's recipe had undergone some significant modifications. Her chocolate layer, infused with the subtle essence of espresso powder, added a depth of flavor that was both rich and refined. The use of melted chocolate instead of dry cocoa powder resulted in a lighter, more nuanced chocolate experience.

**The Art of Meringue**

The meringue itself was where our two creations diverged significantly. My French Meringue, made with sugar and salt, had a slightly sweeter flavor profile than Martha's Swiss Meringue. The use of egg whites and whipped sugar resulted in a stiff, yet airy texture that added an impressive stability to the structure.

In contrast, Martha's Swiss Meringue was more delicate and refined, with a subtle sweetness that allowed the other flavors to shine through. Her technique, which involved whipping eggs and sugar together before folding in air, created a light and fluffy meringue that was both beautiful and functional.

**The Flavors of Baked Alaska**

As we explored the flavors of our baked alaskas, it became clear that each dessert had its own unique character. Martha's version featured a sweet and tangy cherry ice cream, which complemented the richness of her chocolate layer perfectly. The use of Cherry as an independent contractor, with its chunky texture and flavor profile, added an unexpected twist to the classic dessert.

My baked Alaska, on the other hand, took a different approach, incorporating pistachio and Cherry into a single ice cream layer. This bold move resulted in a complex flavor profile that was both exciting and challenging. The addition of melted chocolate, which replaced dry cocoa powder, added a subtle richness to the dessert that tied everything together.

**The Verdict**

As we compared our creations, it became clear that each dessert had its own strengths and weaknesses. Martha's Baked Alaska, while refined and elegant, lacked a certain je ne sais quoi that set my creation apart. My French Meringue, with its stiff texture and sweet flavor profile, added an impressive stability to the structure, but may have been slightly too sweet for some tastes.

In the end, it was clear that both desserts were winners in their own right. Martha's Baked Alaska, while not perfect, was a masterclass in refinement and elegance. My creation, with its bold flavors and innovative approach, demonstrated that sometimes imperfection can be a good thing.

**A Recipe for Success**

The baked Alaska challenge was a true test of skill and creativity. As I reflect on the process, I realize that it's not just about following a recipe or technique; it's about bringing your own unique perspective and flair to the table. Whether you're a seasoned chef or an amateur baker, the key to success lies in embracing imperfection and having fun with the process.

As we closed our eyes and savored the flavors of each dessert, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Not just because we had created two beautiful baked alaskas, but because we had pushed ourselves to try something new and unexpected. And that, my friends, is the true spirit of culinary adventure.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi I'm Hannah I'm in the VA Test Kitchen here to have a super secret conversation about Chris Morocco once again we're putting Chris's super taster abilities to the test this is Martha Stewart's baked Alaska I'm challenging Chris to recreate this dish using every ingredient he'll be able to taste it touch it and smell it but at no point will he be able to see this dish at the end of it all we'll come back to see his final creation and I'll be the judge for a minute it smelled like a like a s'more you know like toasted graham cracker oh whoa use guys this thing is big so we've got a lot of toasted meringue that's been you know kind of floofed just so to present this kind of spiky appearance it smells like toasted marshmallow because it's meringue that's been blowtorched I mean there's pretty much only one thing this can be so I'm gonna write my guess for what this is on a piece of paper and then we'll check in in a little bit to see if I'm correct perfect we've got layers of what I presume to be ice cream I'm going to call this for pistachio ice cream seems to be a layer of chocolate cake there's like another layer of ice cream here under the pistachio I got a maraschino cherry you ever learn how to like tie the stem in a knot in your mouth no anyone else no I can't tell if I'm tasting almost like a cherry or other like really bright you know kind of red fruit ice cream or if the maraschino cherry has just sort of like gotten all over something else maybe it's a lux dardo Cherry sort of tasted like crisped rice with like fudge sauce I feel like I've made quite a mess I'm done tasting for the minute all right so this is the piece of paper where I wrote down my guess before not bad blindfolded writing I think this is unequivocally baked Alaska you've got layers of ice cream and cake and whatever but the operative kind of technique here is coating something that's like Frozen in meringue and then torching it you don't see that in virtually any other dessert not withstanding lemon meringue pie any guess on the chef I don't think it's Caroline's Schiff because of the fact that it's so large I mean that would be my best guess for the minute I've been informed that I need to present a version of this by the end of the day today and the thing that's going to take the longest is the setup on the ice cream so practically speaking the only way to get this done today is to buy the ice cream I want to get like pistachio and then I want to see like is there a cherry or certainly like no problem to get strawberry so we need cherries and then cake I want Dutch process cocoa I'll just say AP flower I don't know get cake flour too plastic wrap metal bowls we also need those cardboard cake rounds we need a blowtorch somebody's gonna shop and then I will have my first attempt let's taste some ice cream so I feel like the strawberry is the lightest flavor so I'm gonna start there oh it's pretty distinct could I see a world in which some of this cherry on there is kind of giving you like more of like an almost cherry flavored ice cream the one thing that I am heartened by here is that the pistachio does have the bits we need this texture that's what we're looking for strongest flavored pistachio but it's good fascinating this is not actually technically ice cream I mean it's so cherry flavored like I'm in this world this is the world I'm living in now the cherries Okay so we've got the amarena cherries we've got the luxardo cherries and we've got maraschino cherries the flavor is not as bad as some it just has like that fake Cherry kind of flavor to it all right so now that luxardo the flavor is interesting it's very like cooked this is the amarena Cherry that's certainly the brightest crazy sweet but it still retains kind of like real proper cherry flavor might go with the amarena why not so the first flavored layer of ice cream probably needs to set a little bit in advance before we add the second layer of ice cream so we're going to start with pistachio get that in there and get it in the freezer for at least an hour before we do the next flavor I'm gonna basically try to partially melt it but not so much that it loses its air we don't want the ice cream to deflate because we do not have the ability to return it here what we're trying to do instead is just get it to the point where it's kind of like that or it can now be scooped into that bowl and it'll you know really kind of settle against it and take the shape of the bowl but we want something that's much firmer to be able to set up in the baked Alaska firmed up for our purposes so I feel good about proceeding so this is our layer of strawberry ice cream and I'm just kind of hand paddling it to bring it to a workable consistency so I can shape it onto our pistachio layer but not before I throw some cherries on it yeah it's I mean it's still pretty soft you wouldn't want to unmold it now we need a blast chiller a blast chiller is a very cold freezer that cools things super fast we certainly do not have a blast chiller at our disposal right now you'd a blast chiller you could assemble this whole thing probably cool it down and maybe an hour what if I told you I could get you a glass jumper I'd say yippee Kay do you really have one the what are we doing here did I need to ask for it that's your problem now that I have access to a blast chiller this can go in it for probably about an hour or so and that will drastically cut down the amount of time that we're going to need to chill this and get it to the point at which we can meringue it and torch it hey Chef how you doing man yeah apparently I'm borrowing your blast chiller 15 to 20 minutes oh that's it okay we need to do cake and the cake in and of itself could be a whole episode right looking for something that's like low technique but replicating the intensity of the chocolate flavor so let's make some cake AP flour that's baking powder salt and then baking soda that's our Dutch processed cocoa powder based on a cake that I had a lot growing up hot milk just added like tenderness really kind of velvety crumb but also really bloomed and enhanced the cocoa flavor all right so we're going with veg oil and then vanilla all right so two eggs sugar in with the eggs it's really very tight and then hot milk goes in starts to loosen it back up all right so rest of the milk is now going in I'm just whisking the batter back until it's smooth it's quite a fluid batter so it looks good the ice cream is apparently ready in the blast chiller we're gonna go walk down and grab it out and put in the regular freezer until we're ready for it a little bit but I think this is going to give us like a massive head start so we're going to transfer to the freezer we cooled the ice cream down really fast in that blast chiller however there's a danger in going too far in a blast trailer because things will turn literally rock hard so we cooled it down really fast got it set back up and now it's in the regular freezer where I can hopefully just stay at like a a better Frozen temperature where it'll be a little bit more forgiving to eat sort of tasted like crisped rice with like fudge sauce okay so now we're making some hot fudge because why not brown sugar is heavy cream corn syrup butter chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder salt this is exciting I've never really done this okay hit 220 we're gonna wax some Rice Krispies in there I don't know we're gonna make it with this this is like too fun not to use you know oh wow um I sort of forgot we were making baked Alaska this is a fudge video right guys so let's check out this cape so I'm gonna let this cool down a little bit more and maybe while the cake is cooling why don't we make our meringue so I want egg whites only it's gonna beat it till frothy and then I'm gonna do half cup of sugar and a little salt and vanilla jamming we did a quick cool down of the cake layer we may have to kind of chop that down a little bit that's definitely what you want to see when you cut open a cake like really wide open hole structure like that going with the cake layer then I'm going to go with the ice cream layer oh the fudge sauce a little fudge sauce with the Rice Krispies that cannot possibly be wrong it's like it never happened what are the chances that the meringue is just going to slide right off the ice cream oh okay we're all right I needed maybe a little bit more meringue than the volume I started out with just because the ice cream's starting to melt and make it a little bit tricky kind of get the meringue to hold its shape best part of the day right here you know isn't that crazy that transformation all right this is first pass at Baked Alaska and I'm gonna cut into it and see how we did I don't know hope the the hardest part is going to be trying to get a clean slice off of it I feel good I mean honestly just for the sake of the insanity the construction of this thing it's holding its shape admirably well feel good about the meringue I needed more of it I could have beat it just slightly further I'll give myself 60 for ingredients I mean there's a lot of different ways to make a chocolate cake you know technique I feel a little bit better about technique sure there might be some details in like let's say like that fudge sauce element but technique I would say like I would give myself a 75. the color of the ice cream could be a little bit different but appearance is where I'm feeling most bullish and I would go with like a 90 percent taste the fruit ice cream layer whatever is happening I'd go down to like 75. on this piece of paper are my actual scores I really felt like we were onto something with the Rice Krispies and the hot fudge you know two main things that I want to get out of the tasting tomorrow when we go back to the original dish is is there a fudge layer and what's the deal with that fruit ice cream layer you know it would really help if I could see it tomorrow bright and early gonna taste the original dish again and then I will have my second last attempt thank you so for this second tasting I want to do something a little bit unorthodox that will shock and upset you well do you want me to tell you what I'm gonna do or should I just do it okay foreign the hard part's done we're gonna hit it from the bottom okay the meringue was all on top it was in the way of everything yesterday you know this cake does not feel super Frozen for what it's worth it's pretty cocoa I think sweeter than my cake is it possible there's a touch of like espresso powder in this cake yeah I don't think it's crazy to think that there would be some in kind of instant coffee kind of product and there I had convinced myself that this had to be like a two-tone color situation right and here we are got more pistachio I mean that's a big Revelation right there for me this is like a full-on pistachio Baked Alaska so I'm looking for those candied cherries and I can't find one and my fingers are literally freezing and I can't feel anything anymore it's so cold okay I found a cherry I think I'm gonna go back to the luxardo this is feeling a little bit more cooked and a little bit more muted all right I feel good about my direction for my next version I'm gonna need two times the pistachio ice cream I would love to know if we have instant espresso powder in the tasting I just had I forgot to even think to question whether or not there was a fudge sauce there I think that perhaps in the first tasting the cake as it defrosted it melded into almost like a cake paste and threw me off a little bit we are going with no fudge sauce this time first move here is we need to get the ice cream set up so we're going all pistachio for this version no strawberry get it out of here also going with the luxardo cherries rather than amarena that was a decision made of the fact that I just felt like I got a little more like deep complex cooked fruit Aroma and flavor versus like the crazy bright exaggerated Maraschino flavor of the amarena should we go yeah yeah let's go hey thanks Chef all right we'll try to stay out of your way ice cream's in the freezer we need to make the cake the cake in the original dish is Frozen No Doubt yesterday I did not freeze the cake onto the ice cream and I think that was a mistake so we're gonna correct for that at least wow okay flower was shooting out all over the place there huh making just a couple of adjustments including touch more sugar and a touch more baking powder and a touch more salt and then baking soda now we'll do our wet mixture I am once again heating the milk so that's veg oil eggs vanilla the other change here the espresso powder what the is this you know it's like the really coarse stuff it's not the espresso powder oh you know what we're gonna do one in the milk where it's going to dissolve and then we need the cocoa all right so we're doing wet into dry today the dry mix includes our sugar yesterday it had gone into the wet mixture with the eggs but didn't didn't need it just had a slightly wonky structure to the cake yesterday we had some abnormally large bubbles which were definitely not within spec so hopefully this is going to introduce like an even deeper and richer Savory flavor that isn't necessarily all coming from cocoa powder I also just felt like my cake needed to be both a little bit sweeter and a little bit even more Savory as well all right so cakes in the oven the ice cream is freezing we need to wait for these two things to kind of cool down fully come together chill again then we can do our final assembly still a touch soft in the center but nice and firm right around the edges just taking a taste of the cake seeing if we got a little closer the coffee is subtle but maybe it's okay it's a background you know a little bit sweeter a little bit saltier and it's like chocolatey but there's something else going on and I really like that about it cake is now United with the ice cream it's gonna go back in the blast cooler and meanwhile I can work on my meringue meringue change is mainly I just gonna use more of it I need four egg whites worth just to get really full coverage Italian meringue is beaten egg white but that has cooked sugar syrup added into it so it gives you like ultimate instability and then there's Swiss meringue which is barely heated egg white just until warm so it gives you again like a little bit more stability but I just don't think you need it for this I think anyway this uh to my knowledge is French Meringue uncooked meringue just gonna get the egg whites foamy and then I'm gonna stream in a little bit more sugar than I used yesterday just because I want it to be to measure it with the amount of egg white that I'm using today a little pinch salt I want to to beat this meringue until the Peaks are really stiff okay that's it even if piping is the right answer honestly like we're past that now even though the meringue is in a bowl in front of me and could totally be put into a Piping Bag I'm not gonna do it because it's just too annoying why would you do that just put the meringue on the thing why do you need a pipe it I'm not patient enough of a person for pastry you know it's just like it's too annoying like everything in a freaking Piping Bag and this thing and that thing you can bake a baked Alaska but like if you want to truly control the process and like really precisely control the level of toast on the meringue like I'm going blowtorch every time you can bake it but that turns the entire meringue this more like kind of monotone like beige you don't get as much of like the detail of like the dark edges of the meringue this is my second attempt ingredients always bet on yourself I will go with a very bullish 80 percent so for technique I'm gonna give myself a 70. in terms of the meringue the treatment there that's that's real wild card appearance let's say like 90 taste hopefully like we did some some more right things here so maybe I would guess like 85 time for judge to come in and let me know how I actually did Christopher we meet again do you have an idea as to whose recipe this is it feels kind of Italian to me like old school Italian cesare Casella I don't know okay I like I like the correct no absolutely not okay may I present to you Martha Stewart's Baked Alaska it was piped on it looks like this got a little torch treatment yeah totally this definitely gets finished off in the oven not a hand porch gorgeous meringue though tell me about your meringue I did a French Meringue just sugar and salt I ended up taking the vanilla out of it your origin is incorrect so this is a French Meringue as you say done in a stand mixer yeah presume Martha's is a Swiss meringue oh it is okay obviously differs in that it uses a Marie yep resulting in a slightly more stable end product this is obviously kind of an old spoiled star tip star tip beautiful piping treatment which Martha is so famous for you know probably a Swiss because of the fact that it got applied via star tip yeah did you need that stability a lot of stability yeah Martha Stewart does also use cream of tartar a common stabilizing ingredient I think we need to cut into it oh there was a layer of fruit something foreign is that cherry ice cream I felt like I got the fruit ice cream on my first tasting and then just completely could not find it in my second tasting then I felt like the Cherry was like an independent contractor let's have a taste yours first together sure okay let's taste Martha's this is some premium Cherry ice cream look at those chunks it's not actually ice cream it's a frozen dairy product her meringue is much more sweet yours is cloud-like and really pleasant but this is like I'm a meringue I'm here I'm not moving very Cherry in a imitation Cherry kind of way even though you see the Cherry chunks it also has that like it's hyper vanilla Cherry taste your chocolate layer it's got a nice stature and the chocolate really comes through I think that's due to the espresso powder I felt like I was getting a darker expression of chocolate than maybe I was in reality I feel like I was trying to incorporate another element to kind of round out the chocolate and like that was like the coffee so obviously in Martha's her chocolate layer is lighter than yours yours is like a deep rich saturated chocolate color and that's due to the fact that she uses a melted chocolate versus a dried cocoa powder so this cake is using two eggs yolks and weights separated milks get whisked with the sugar and then the whites get folded in afterwards separated egg foam and melted chocolate never in a million years so on ingredients you gave yourself an 80. I will give you a 75 while you Incorporated both pistachio and Cherry in your ice cream layer these are actually two different ice creams and then the chocolate layer there's actually no flour in this one and again it's melted chocolate versus dry cocoa powder subtle differences that add up so on technique you gave yourself a 70 and I gave you a 67. not only is this a Swiss meringue this gets put in the oven to get the brown Shell at the end and you use a torch appearance you gave yourself a 90. uh those are different times I'll give you an 80. because even though they are vastly different I do feel like with baked Alaska there is such a wow factor and these both deliver on that I'll be generous there last one is taste you gave yourself an 85 and I gave you an 80 also if you close your eyes the flavors are all there then I actually think your meringue is nicer on the tongue than Martha's it has almost a silky light quality Swiss is so it's almost like a marshmallow a stiff marshmallow and I think I just prefer that lighter smoother meringue feeling so great flavor just not the same as yeah so overall your average score for yourself was an 81 and mine for you is a 76. yours is delicious I think I would prefer it over her sorry Martha but this was the brief and you were close but not quite yeah I mean you should be proud of yourself again like a baked Alaska is a challenge for anyone beautiful job awesome thanks Hannah appreciate it this one was was tough but always unexpected ways right there's a part of you that says well I made a baked Alaska and that's not nothing I learned that at the end of the day I can walk away happy when I feel like I made a version of something that has its own internal logic and integrity even when it's not the correct thing I honestly it was fun to have something that was a little bit more of a project a little bit more time even if it meant getting it wrong made some cupcakes here a little like muffin bonus for you guys all right nobody's gonna be mad about thathi I'm Hannah I'm in the VA Test Kitchen here to have a super secret conversation about Chris Morocco once again we're putting Chris's super taster abilities to the test this is Martha Stewart's baked Alaska I'm challenging Chris to recreate this dish using every ingredient he'll be able to taste it touch it and smell it but at no point will he be able to see this dish at the end of it all we'll come back to see his final creation and I'll be the judge for a minute it smelled like a like a s'more you know like toasted graham cracker oh whoa use guys this thing is big so we've got a lot of toasted meringue that's been you know kind of floofed just so to present this kind of spiky appearance it smells like toasted marshmallow because it's meringue that's been blowtorched I mean there's pretty much only one thing this can be so I'm gonna write my guess for what this is on a piece of paper and then we'll check in in a little bit to see if I'm correct perfect we've got layers of what I presume to be ice cream I'm going to call this for pistachio ice cream seems to be a layer of chocolate cake there's like another layer of ice cream here under the pistachio I got a maraschino cherry you ever learn how to like tie the stem in a knot in your mouth no anyone else no I can't tell if I'm tasting almost like a cherry or other like really bright you know kind of red fruit ice cream or if the maraschino cherry has just sort of like gotten all over something else maybe it's a lux dardo Cherry sort of tasted like crisped rice with like fudge sauce I feel like I've made quite a mess I'm done tasting for the minute all right so this is the piece of paper where I wrote down my guess before not bad blindfolded writing I think this is unequivocally baked Alaska you've got layers of ice cream and cake and whatever but the operative kind of technique here is coating something that's like Frozen in meringue and then torching it you don't see that in virtually any other dessert not withstanding lemon meringue pie any guess on the chef I don't think it's Caroline's Schiff because of the fact that it's so large I mean that would be my best guess for the minute I've been informed that I need to present a version of this by the end of the day today and the thing that's going to take the longest is the setup on the ice cream so practically speaking the only way to get this done today is to buy the ice cream I want to get like pistachio and then I want to see like is there a cherry or certainly like no problem to get strawberry so we need cherries and then cake I want Dutch process cocoa I'll just say AP flower I don't know get cake flour too plastic wrap metal bowls we also need those cardboard cake rounds we need a blowtorch somebody's gonna shop and then I will have my first attempt let's taste some ice cream so I feel like the strawberry is the lightest flavor so I'm gonna start there oh it's pretty distinct could I see a world in which some of this cherry on there is kind of giving you like more of like an almost cherry flavored ice cream the one thing that I am heartened by here is that the pistachio does have the bits we need this texture that's what we're looking for strongest flavored pistachio but it's good fascinating this is not actually technically ice cream I mean it's so cherry flavored like I'm in this world this is the world I'm living in now the cherries Okay so we've got the amarena cherries we've got the luxardo cherries and we've got maraschino cherries the flavor is not as bad as some it just has like that fake Cherry kind of flavor to it all right so now that luxardo the flavor is interesting it's very like cooked this is the amarena Cherry that's certainly the brightest crazy sweet but it still retains kind of like real proper cherry flavor might go with the amarena why not so the first flavored layer of ice cream probably needs to set a little bit in advance before we add the second layer of ice cream so we're going to start with pistachio get that in there and get it in the freezer for at least an hour before we do the next flavor I'm gonna basically try to partially melt it but not so much that it loses its air we don't want the ice cream to deflate because we do not have the ability to return it here what we're trying to do instead is just get it to the point where it's kind of like that or it can now be scooped into that bowl and it'll you know really kind of settle against it and take the shape of the bowl but we want something that's much firmer to be able to set up in the baked Alaska firmed up for our purposes so I feel good about proceeding so this is our layer of strawberry ice cream and I'm just kind of hand paddling it to bring it to a workable consistency so I can shape it onto our pistachio layer but not before I throw some cherries on it yeah it's I mean it's still pretty soft you wouldn't want to unmold it now we need a blast chiller a blast chiller is a very cold freezer that cools things super fast we certainly do not have a blast chiller at our disposal right now you'd a blast chiller you could assemble this whole thing probably cool it down and maybe an hour what if I told you I could get you a glass jumper I'd say yippee Kay do you really have one the what are we doing here did I need to ask for it that's your problem now that I have access to a blast chiller this can go in it for probably about an hour or so and that will drastically cut down the amount of time that we're going to need to chill this and get it to the point at which we can meringue it and torch it hey Chef how you doing man yeah apparently I'm borrowing your blast chiller 15 to 20 minutes oh that's it okay we need to do cake and the cake in and of itself could be a whole episode right looking for something that's like low technique but replicating the intensity of the chocolate flavor so let's make some cake AP flour that's baking powder salt and then baking soda that's our Dutch processed cocoa powder based on a cake that I had a lot growing up hot milk just added like tenderness really kind of velvety crumb but also really bloomed and enhanced the cocoa flavor all right so we're going with veg oil and then vanilla all right so two eggs sugar in with the eggs it's really very tight and then hot milk goes in starts to loosen it back up all right so rest of the milk is now going in I'm just whisking the batter back until it's smooth it's quite a fluid batter so it looks good the ice cream is apparently ready in the blast chiller we're gonna go walk down and grab it out and put in the regular freezer until we're ready for it a little bit but I think this is going to give us like a massive head start so we're going to transfer to the freezer we cooled the ice cream down really fast in that blast chiller however there's a danger in going too far in a blast trailer because things will turn literally rock hard so we cooled it down really fast got it set back up and now it's in the regular freezer where I can hopefully just stay at like a a better Frozen temperature where it'll be a little bit more forgiving to eat sort of tasted like crisped rice with like fudge sauce okay so now we're making some hot fudge because why not brown sugar is heavy cream corn syrup butter chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder salt this is exciting I've never really done this okay hit 220 we're gonna wax some Rice Krispies in there I don't know we're gonna make it with this this is like too fun not to use you know oh wow um I sort of forgot we were making baked Alaska this is a fudge video right guys so let's check out this cape so I'm gonna let this cool down a little bit more and maybe while the cake is cooling why don't we make our meringue so I want egg whites only it's gonna beat it till frothy and then I'm gonna do half cup of sugar and a little salt and vanilla jamming we did a quick cool down of the cake layer we may have to kind of chop that down a little bit that's definitely what you want to see when you cut open a cake like really wide open hole structure like that going with the cake layer then I'm going to go with the ice cream layer oh the fudge sauce a little fudge sauce with the Rice Krispies that cannot possibly be wrong it's like it never happened what are the chances that the meringue is just going to slide right off the ice cream oh okay we're all right I needed maybe a little bit more meringue than the volume I started out with just because the ice cream's starting to melt and make it a little bit tricky kind of get the meringue to hold its shape best part of the day right here you know isn't that crazy that transformation all right this is first pass at Baked Alaska and I'm gonna cut into it and see how we did I don't know hope the the hardest part is going to be trying to get a clean slice off of it I feel good I mean honestly just for the sake of the insanity the construction of this thing it's holding its shape admirably well feel good about the meringue I needed more of it I could have beat it just slightly further I'll give myself 60 for ingredients I mean there's a lot of different ways to make a chocolate cake you know technique I feel a little bit better about technique sure there might be some details in like let's say like that fudge sauce element but technique I would say like I would give myself a 75. the color of the ice cream could be a little bit different but appearance is where I'm feeling most bullish and I would go with like a 90 percent taste the fruit ice cream layer whatever is happening I'd go down to like 75. on this piece of paper are my actual scores I really felt like we were onto something with the Rice Krispies and the hot fudge you know two main things that I want to get out of the tasting tomorrow when we go back to the original dish is is there a fudge layer and what's the deal with that fruit ice cream layer you know it would really help if I could see it tomorrow bright and early gonna taste the original dish again and then I will have my second last attempt thank you so for this second tasting I want to do something a little bit unorthodox that will shock and upset you well do you want me to tell you what I'm gonna do or should I just do it okay foreign the hard part's done we're gonna hit it from the bottom okay the meringue was all on top it was in the way of everything yesterday you know this cake does not feel super Frozen for what it's worth it's pretty cocoa I think sweeter than my cake is it possible there's a touch of like espresso powder in this cake yeah I don't think it's crazy to think that there would be some in kind of instant coffee kind of product and there I had convinced myself that this had to be like a two-tone color situation right and here we are got more pistachio I mean that's a big Revelation right there for me this is like a full-on pistachio Baked Alaska so I'm looking for those candied cherries and I can't find one and my fingers are literally freezing and I can't feel anything anymore it's so cold okay I found a cherry I think I'm gonna go back to the luxardo this is feeling a little bit more cooked and a little bit more muted all right I feel good about my direction for my next version I'm gonna need two times the pistachio ice cream I would love to know if we have instant espresso powder in the tasting I just had I forgot to even think to question whether or not there was a fudge sauce there I think that perhaps in the first tasting the cake as it defrosted it melded into almost like a cake paste and threw me off a little bit we are going with no fudge sauce this time first move here is we need to get the ice cream set up so we're going all pistachio for this version no strawberry get it out of here also going with the luxardo cherries rather than amarena that was a decision made of the fact that I just felt like I got a little more like deep complex cooked fruit Aroma and flavor versus like the crazy bright exaggerated Maraschino flavor of the amarena should we go yeah yeah let's go hey thanks Chef all right we'll try to stay out of your way ice cream's in the freezer we need to make the cake the cake in the original dish is Frozen No Doubt yesterday I did not freeze the cake onto the ice cream and I think that was a mistake so we're gonna correct for that at least wow okay flower was shooting out all over the place there huh making just a couple of adjustments including touch more sugar and a touch more baking powder and a touch more salt and then baking soda now we'll do our wet mixture I am once again heating the milk so that's veg oil eggs vanilla the other change here the espresso powder what the is this you know it's like the really coarse stuff it's not the espresso powder oh you know what we're gonna do one in the milk where it's going to dissolve and then we need the cocoa all right so we're doing wet into dry today the dry mix includes our sugar yesterday it had gone into the wet mixture with the eggs but didn't didn't need it just had a slightly wonky structure to the cake yesterday we had some abnormally large bubbles which were definitely not within spec so hopefully this is going to introduce like an even deeper and richer Savory flavor that isn't necessarily all coming from cocoa powder I also just felt like my cake needed to be both a little bit sweeter and a little bit even more Savory as well all right so cakes in the oven the ice cream is freezing we need to wait for these two things to kind of cool down fully come together chill again then we can do our final assembly still a touch soft in the center but nice and firm right around the edges just taking a taste of the cake seeing if we got a little closer the coffee is subtle but maybe it's okay it's a background you know a little bit sweeter a little bit saltier and it's like chocolatey but there's something else going on and I really like that about it cake is now United with the ice cream it's gonna go back in the blast cooler and meanwhile I can work on my meringue meringue change is mainly I just gonna use more of it I need four egg whites worth just to get really full coverage Italian meringue is beaten egg white but that has cooked sugar syrup added into it so it gives you like ultimate instability and then there's Swiss meringue which is barely heated egg white just until warm so it gives you again like a little bit more stability but I just don't think you need it for this I think anyway this uh to my knowledge is French Meringue uncooked meringue just gonna get the egg whites foamy and then I'm gonna stream in a little bit more sugar than I used yesterday just because I want it to be to measure it with the amount of egg white that I'm using today a little pinch salt I want to to beat this meringue until the Peaks are really stiff okay that's it even if piping is the right answer honestly like we're past that now even though the meringue is in a bowl in front of me and could totally be put into a Piping Bag I'm not gonna do it because it's just too annoying why would you do that just put the meringue on the thing why do you need a pipe it I'm not patient enough of a person for pastry you know it's just like it's too annoying like everything in a freaking Piping Bag and this thing and that thing you can bake a baked Alaska but like if you want to truly control the process and like really precisely control the level of toast on the meringue like I'm going blowtorch every time you can bake it but that turns the entire meringue this more like kind of monotone like beige you don't get as much of like the detail of like the dark edges of the meringue this is my second attempt ingredients always bet on yourself I will go with a very bullish 80 percent so for technique I'm gonna give myself a 70. in terms of the meringue the treatment there that's that's real wild card appearance let's say like 90 taste hopefully like we did some some more right things here so maybe I would guess like 85 time for judge to come in and let me know how I actually did Christopher we meet again do you have an idea as to whose recipe this is it feels kind of Italian to me like old school Italian cesare Casella I don't know okay I like I like the correct no absolutely not okay may I present to you Martha Stewart's Baked Alaska it was piped on it looks like this got a little torch treatment yeah totally this definitely gets finished off in the oven not a hand porch gorgeous meringue though tell me about your meringue I did a French Meringue just sugar and salt I ended up taking the vanilla out of it your origin is incorrect so this is a French Meringue as you say done in a stand mixer yeah presume Martha's is a Swiss meringue oh it is okay obviously differs in that it uses a Marie yep resulting in a slightly more stable end product this is obviously kind of an old spoiled star tip star tip beautiful piping treatment which Martha is so famous for you know probably a Swiss because of the fact that it got applied via star tip yeah did you need that stability a lot of stability yeah Martha Stewart does also use cream of tartar a common stabilizing ingredient I think we need to cut into it oh there was a layer of fruit something foreign is that cherry ice cream I felt like I got the fruit ice cream on my first tasting and then just completely could not find it in my second tasting then I felt like the Cherry was like an independent contractor let's have a taste yours first together sure okay let's taste Martha's this is some premium Cherry ice cream look at those chunks it's not actually ice cream it's a frozen dairy product her meringue is much more sweet yours is cloud-like and really pleasant but this is like I'm a meringue I'm here I'm not moving very Cherry in a imitation Cherry kind of way even though you see the Cherry chunks it also has that like it's hyper vanilla Cherry taste your chocolate layer it's got a nice stature and the chocolate really comes through I think that's due to the espresso powder I felt like I was getting a darker expression of chocolate than maybe I was in reality I feel like I was trying to incorporate another element to kind of round out the chocolate and like that was like the coffee so obviously in Martha's her chocolate layer is lighter than yours yours is like a deep rich saturated chocolate color and that's due to the fact that she uses a melted chocolate versus a dried cocoa powder so this cake is using two eggs yolks and weights separated milks get whisked with the sugar and then the whites get folded in afterwards separated egg foam and melted chocolate never in a million years so on ingredients you gave yourself an 80. I will give you a 75 while you Incorporated both pistachio and Cherry in your ice cream layer these are actually two different ice creams and then the chocolate layer there's actually no flour in this one and again it's melted chocolate versus dry cocoa powder subtle differences that add up so on technique you gave yourself a 70 and I gave you a 67. not only is this a Swiss meringue this gets put in the oven to get the brown Shell at the end and you use a torch appearance you gave yourself a 90. uh those are different times I'll give you an 80. because even though they are vastly different I do feel like with baked Alaska there is such a wow factor and these both deliver on that I'll be generous there last one is taste you gave yourself an 85 and I gave you an 80 also if you close your eyes the flavors are all there then I actually think your meringue is nicer on the tongue than Martha's it has almost a silky light quality Swiss is so it's almost like a marshmallow a stiff marshmallow and I think I just prefer that lighter smoother meringue feeling so great flavor just not the same as yeah so overall your average score for yourself was an 81 and mine for you is a 76. yours is delicious I think I would prefer it over her sorry Martha but this was the brief and you were close but not quite yeah I mean you should be proud of yourself again like a baked Alaska is a challenge for anyone beautiful job awesome thanks Hannah appreciate it this one was was tough but always unexpected ways right there's a part of you that says well I made a baked Alaska and that's not nothing I learned that at the end of the day I can walk away happy when I feel like I made a version of something that has its own internal logic and integrity even when it's not the correct thing I honestly it was fun to have something that was a little bit more of a project a little bit more time even if it meant getting it wrong made some cupcakes here a little like muffin bonus for you guys all right nobody's gonna be mad about that\n"