Omelette norvégienne
A dessert that seems a physical paradox: ice cream put into a hot oven and coming out intact. It is protected by a layer of meringue, full of air bubbles, a superb insulator. Americans know it as baked Alaska. There are two conditions: the meringue must seal the ice cream and sponge on every side, with no gap at all, and the ice cream must be frozen rock hard before the meringue goes on.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Ice cream dome 20 min
- Freezing 300 min
- Italian meringue 15 min
- Assembly 20 min
- Toasting 5 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBuild an ice cream dome in a bowl
Line a 20 cm bowl with cling film. Soften the ice cream 10 minutes in the fridge and press a layer of vanilla against the sides, filling the centre with sorbet. Level it flat — that side becomes the base.
Ingredients: 1 pcs sponge · 750 ml vanilla ice cream · 500 ml raspberry sorbet · 3 tbsp rum or Grand Marnier
Vanilla against the walls, sorbet inside — flat on top.Freeze rock hard
Cover and freeze at least 5 hours, ideally overnight. The ice cream must be hard right through. Soft ice cream melts in the oven before the meringue colours — the commonest failure of this dessert.
Ingredients: 1 pcs sponge · 750 ml vanilla ice cream · 500 ml raspberry sorbet · 3 tbsp rum or Grand Marnier
Soak the sponge and invert the ice cream onto it
Set the sponge on an ovenproof platter or flat baking sheet, soak it lightly with rum, invert the ice cream dome onto it and peel off the film. The sponge should stand 1 cm beyond the ice cream — the meringue seals to the base along that border.
Ingredients: 1 pcs sponge · 750 ml vanilla ice cream · 500 ml raspberry sorbet · 3 tbsp rum or Grand Marnier
Boil a syrup to 118°C
Boil the sugar and water to 118°C. When the syrup reaches 110°C, start whisking the whites with a pinch of salt to soft foam. Hot syrup partly sets the whites into a stable meringue that neither collapses nor weeps in the oven.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 250 g sugar · 80 ml water · 1 pinch salt
Stream the syrup into the whites
With the mixer running pour the hot syrup in a thin stream down the side of the bowl, not onto the whisk, which spatters it. Keep whisking 6–8 minutes, until glossy, stiff and lukewarm.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 250 g sugar · 80 ml water · 1 pinch salt
Down the side of the bowl — on the whisk it spatters.Seal the ice cream in meringue
Take the dome from the freezer and spread a thick layer of meringue, 2–3 cm, right down to the base all round the sponge. Any gap is a way in for heat. Pull up pointed peaks with a spatula.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 250 g sugar · 80 ml water · 1 pinch salt
Sealed right to the board — a gap lets the heat in.Toast briefly in a very hot oven
Put into an oven heated to 240°C for 3–4 minutes, until the peaks brown. A blowtorch also works. Do not walk away — meringue goes from golden to black in half a minute.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 250 g sugar · 80 ml water · 1 pinch salt
Flambé at the table and slice at once
Warm the rum in a small pan, take it off the heat and light it with a long match, away from the extractor hood, then pour it flaming over the meringue at the table. Never pour spirit from the bottle into a flame. Slice with a sharp knife dipped in hot water and serve at once — under the meringue the ice cream holds for a quarter of an hour.
Ingredients: 60 ml rum or Grand Marnier
Before you start
Why Italian meringue
French meringue of raw whites also works, but in the oven it can weep syrup and sink, and after a few minutes' toasting the whites are still practically raw. Italian meringue, heated by the hot syrup, is more stable and easier to spread. If children, pregnant women or older people will eat it, use pasteurised egg whites.
It can be prepared ahead
The meringue-covered dome can go back into the freezer for a few hours. Italian meringue tolerates freezing. Toast it straight from the freezer — even safer for the ice cream.
It does not keep once toasted
Once toasted the dessert must be eaten at once. Leftovers can be frozen, but the meringue turns rubbery. In practice a smaller individual version in muffin size is easier.
