Lemon Baked Alaska

Sandra's all-time favorite: layers of vanilla ice cream and homemade lemon curd frozen in a pie crust, then covered with meringue and browned in a 500°F oven.

From the recipe book of Sandra Mills, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained cook in our family.

Steak and Seafood title card for Lemon Baked Alaska, photo coming soon
  • Prep 45 min
  • Cook 15 min
  • Freeze overnight 12 hr
  • Total 13 hr
  • Yield 1 (9-inch) pie

Jump to: Ingredients | Instructions | Tips | Print recipe

Sandra Mills writes that this is one of her all-time favorite desserts: a little bit of fuss, but more than worth it. A baked pie crust is layered with softened vanilla ice cream and a tangy homemade lemon curd, which she calls lemon jelly, and frozen overnight.

Just before serving, it is swirled with meringue and browned in a very hot oven for only a few minutes, so the ice cream stays frozen under the toasty topping.

Ingredients

Pie

  • 1 9-inch baked pie crust
  • 1 quart of vanilla ice cream

Lemon jelly

  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks

Meringue

  • 6 egg whites, at room temperature
  • 8 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Instructions

  1. Make the lemon jelly. In the top of a double boiler, melt the butter and add the lemon peel, juice and sugar. Beat the eggs and yolks well and add to the butter mixture. Cook over boiling water, beating constantly with a whisk, until thickened. Cool.
  2. Layer. Let the ice cream soften. Spread half of it in the cooled pie crust and freeze about 5 minutes. When firm, spread half of the lemon jelly over it and freeze again. Repeat with the rest.
  3. Freeze. Freeze overnight.
  4. Meringue. Preheat the oven to 500°F. Beat the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Spread over the frozen pie, sealing it to the crust.
  5. Brown. Put the pie on a board and place it in the oven, watching carefully, for 3 to 5 minutes, until the meringue is lightly browned.

Tips

  • The meringue can be added at the last minute or earlier and the pie refrozen.
  • Sandra saves the extra egg yolks for another recipe.
  • Sealing the meringue all the way to the crust insulates the ice cream.

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