2020.12.04
The following recipe gives you a small product, just right for two people; for a bigger one, use a slice of sponge cake, or a sheet of sugar-cookie dough baked in a slab, for a base, and increase other proportions accordingly.
Separate three eggs, dropping the whites in the mixer bowl. Add about a third of a cup of sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites. Then beat until the meringue is stiff enough that it stands up in little peaks when you withdraw the mixer blades.
Take a round half-pint carton of ice cream (peach or strawberry is nice) and a big, thick, hard cookie — Chinese almond cookies are good — about the same size as the big end of the ice-cream carton. The ice cream should be firm but not rock-hard.
Cut a piece of brown paper about an inch bigger than the cookie. Put the paper on a wooden cutting board or similar slab—do not use a metal pan. Put the cookie in the middle of the paper, get the ice cream out of the carton in one piece and put it on the cookie. Spread the meringue all over, sealing carefully—but hurry.
Slide the whole thing into the oven, which you have carefully preheated to 500 degrees. Inspect after about two minutes, then keep checking at one-minute intervals. When the meringue is brown in patches on the outside, it's done. This won't take more than five minutes altogether, so don't forget to keep an eye on it.
Pick up the Baked Alaska with a pancake turner and slide it onto a plate, getting rid of the paper if you can. Now, take about an ounce of cognac or a fruit-flavored liqueur such as curacao, which you have carefully warmed by putting it in a small glass, covering the glass with aluminum foil, and standing it for a few minutes in a pan of hot water (you must warm it because it will not ignite at room temperature). Pour it into the smallest saucepan you have (but one with a long handle) and touch a match to it. (WHOOSH!) Pour it instantly over the Baked Alaska. (SIZZLE!) Be sure the dish you put the Baked Alaska on is big enough so that none of the flaming liqueur will run over the sides onto the table. Present it immediately, before the fire goes out. Make a wish and fall to.