Individual Baked Alaskas with Panettone & Mincemeat

Individual Baked Alaskas are an impressively showy dessert bound to delight any guest who is sitting at your table. Panettone and mincemeat add welcome fruit and spice to this classic dessert.

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Christmas leftovers – do you still have some? I really do hope you do. This post was meant to come out much earlier in January, but I hit a snag and missed my opportunity to photograph them. That meant I had to wait another week to have my helpers on stand by to polish off these beauties once I’d finished clicking – ice cream waits for nobody.

These individual Baked Alaskas require two foods most readily at hand around Christmas time – Panettone and mincemeat. I usually have the leftovers lingering into the New Year, so I’ve been serving a variation of this show-stopping dessert up for a while now.

It’s so late in January now, that I did consider holding this recipe back until next January. But rather than sitting on this recipe for a year, I’m taking the view that if you see these mini Baked Alaskas now, then you can keep the recipe safe and ensure you have leftovers next January to make them. That, or run around raiding the pantries of all family and friends until you find a forgotten about stash of Christmas goodies.  Somebody, somewhere, must have some leftovers you can put to good use, right?

Baked Alaska is a slightly retro, undeniably showy and utterly impressive dessert. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Baked Alaska is the extrovert of the dessert world.

These Christmas themed individual Baked Alaskas bring a fruity and sweetly spiced edge to this eye-catching and extravagant classic pudding. I’ve replaced the sponge cake with panettone that has been blended with homemade mincemeat. Topped with creamy vanilla ice cream & pillowy toasted Swiss meringue, it really is a great way to beat the January blues and use up those Christmas leftovers.

At first glance, making these mini Baked Alaskas might seem like quite a bit of work. But the good news is: it’s not as complicated as it sounds. The trick is to work methodically and quickly. To help you along, should this be your first time around at making Baked Alaska, I have a few tips.

How to make Baked Alaska

Timing is crucial for success when making any Baked Alaska. But it can be done in stages:

• prepare your base – in this case, a blend of panettone and mincemeat firmly pressed into a ramekin
• top with softened ice cream – again, firmly pressed down to ensure no gaps
• freeze really well – preferably overnight, but for a minimum of 4 hours
• Make the Swiss meringue – this can be done slightly ahead of time too
• Quickly (very quickly) cover each dessert with the meringue – piping is quicker and neater than spooning it on
• Use a kitchen blowtorch to toast the meringue – this gives much better results than cooking in the oven
• Serve straight away and leave no leftovers

That’s seven steps to an exhibitionist style dessert that is sure to impress guests.

But there are a few more things to note:

• this recipe creates 4 substantial individual baked Alaska desserts. It can be made in a 6-inch cake tin to serve 5-6 smaller portions if large sweets are not your thing
• there will most likely be meringue to spare. In this case, more is most definitely better than less. Running out on the final dessert is not a sensible option. Bake any leftover meringue afterwards
• if using the oven rather than a blowtorch, cooking times vary depending on the size of the dessert – read the recipe carefully
• talking of the recipe, I highly recommend reading it start to finish before you begin
• and to reiterate, do work as quickly as possible once the desserts come out of the freezer
• finally, if you have long hair, tie it back when it’s meringue time – that’s my voice of sticky haired experience talking

And that’s it. When broken down into simple stages, these individual Christmas Baked Alaskas are really not as intimidating as the lengthy instructions would have you believe.

But these puddings are impressive beauties. Don’t forget to save the recipe for next year… My family usually enjoy them at the very start of January each year.

This recipe is a great way to use up mincemeat and panettone. If you are looking for a way to use up Christmas pudding, try these homemade chocolates.