Chocolate sauce
100g caster sugar
100g butter
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
125g chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)
75ml water
1 tbsp cocoa
Baked Alaska
1/2 a batch of chocolate brownies
1 tub of Green & Blacks vanilla ice cream
3 free-range egg whites
75g sugar
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
For the chocolate sauce, put the sugar, butter and vanilla seeds into a pan over a medium heat and stir until melted and combined. Then add the chocolate, water and cocoa and heat gently for 6-8 minutes, until it turns into a glossy, thick chocolate sauce. Get a spoon and take a big scoop of the sauce, then make sure it tastes as rich and chocolatey as it looks.
For the baked Alaska, press the brownies into the bottom of a 20cm/8in round ovenproof dish and top it with a couple of spoonfuls of the chocolate sauce, and top that with all the ice cream, make into a dome shape and put into the freezer to chill.
Whisk the egg whites with 25g of the sugar until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed. Add the remaining sugar and whisk again until the egg white mixture is stiff and glossy. Remove the dish from the freezer and spoon the meringue mixture over the ice cream to completely cover. Make sure the meringue completely seals the ice cream so no heat can get in to melt it.
Bake for 3-4 minutes (no longer), until the meringue is just golden-brown. Serve drizzled with the chocolate sauce, if you haven’t eaten it all out of the pan.
