Cherry Bakewell Alaska with Sour Cherry Sauce

Almond ice cream,  cherry infused meringue, with a sour cherry sauce.

These can be a as simple or complicated as your time and skill set allows, shhh it can be just a posh fabrication too.

The Sauce:

4-5 cups of fresh, stoned, washed cherries.

1/2 cup of golden caster sugar

1/2 cup water or vanilla stock syrup

1/2 cup of fresh lemon or lime juice

A shot of kirsch – optional.

Warm ( store bought or home made ) cherry jam/preserve and ‘let down’ with lime or lemon juice, then add the kirsch to make the sour sauce.

or: Macerate the fresh cherries in sugar and lemon/ lime  if you are short of time and serve whole.

or: Reduce the juice of canned cherries by boiling and then add the lemon/lime juice/kirsch. Is another option.

If using fresh cherries, wash and  place them into a saucepan with a a half cup of vanilla stock syrup or water add the juice of half a lemon/lime juice sugar. Cook for 8-10 minutes over a gentle heat, swirl pan to stop from sticking, test and continue to cook for up to half and hour until the cherries are cooked through.  Some cherries make a lot of juice, in which case remove the fruit from the sauce and boil to reduce. Once cooled, add the kirsch if using and briefly pulse in a food processor or push through a medium sieve. Note: The shot of Kirsch to the finished sauce adds a really fabulous depth of flavor, not essential but delicious.

Almond Ice Cream

If you don’t have Almond ice cream, the recipe will be here shortly.  You can also use scoops of  Vanilla ice cream, teaspoon over some ameretto liqueur and then roll the scoop of ice cream in lightly toasted almonds and returned to the freezer on a flat tray until you are ready to use them and yummy in their own right.

The Bases

Cut the sponge bases from a purchased flan base, cake or plain sponge, the genoise sponge shown is home made. The recipe for the sponge is called Margaret and you will see why when the recipe follows asap – promise!

For the Meringue

6 egg whites

250g White Caster Sugar

1 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract

Whisk the egg whites to form soft peak, do this in stages until the to 250g of sugar is incorporated and the meringue stiff and glossy , whip the (room temperature) egg whites in a clean dry bowl until soft peak stage and then slowly add the sugar, add 2 teaspoons of the sour cherry sauce, the vanilla and the cream of tartar. Whizz briefly to combine before piping, we used a a 1.5 star nozzle.

To make the Alaska

Preheat your oven to 200°c

Place  your chosen bases on a non stock oven tray, add some of the cherry sauce and then swiftly add the scoops of ice cream, pipe or fork over the meringue and then place into the preheated oven for 5-10 mins or blow torch to burnish and colour.

Dress your plates with the sauce and/or serve some separately.

Serve straight away.

Enjoy! x