Retro Yum

This week, I returned to work from the winter break. Happily, I was given an extra class, unfortunately, that means less time experimenting with food. Still, our aim is to post for  you all at least three times a week. I have Fridays off, too, and have named Friday, “Fine Dining Friday”. Has a nice ring to it, no?

For our “fancier” dinner, we decided to make some old-school food. We were inspired by television to make some cheese souffle and built the menu around it:

Cheese Souffle

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Iceberg Wedge Salad

Brownie Baked Alaska

To make our meal even more delicious, our friends Mike and Kristin shared it with us! We had a really great time and ended up talking/playing games until two in the morning – something I haven’t done in a very long time.

Since this was our first time making cheese souffle, we consulted the internet and the expert for food science – Alton Brown. You can follow this link to the recipe we used (it turned out perfect, as you can see below).

Brownie Baked Alaska:

Step One: Brownie

• Butter                            12 oz
• Dark Chocolate         15 oz
• Sugar                               1# 2 oz
• Light brown sugar     9 oz
• Eggs                                 9
• Instant coffee              1 t
• Vanilla Extract            1 t
• Ap flour                        10 ½ oz
• Cocoa powder             1 oz
• Salt                                   ¾  t

Procedure:

• Melt butter and chocolate together over a double boiler on stovetop.
• Whisk eggs, sugars, flavorings in large bowl.  Set aside.
• Measure dry ingredients in separate bowl.
• Whisk melted chocolate and butter mix into egg mix.
• Then, whisk in dries.
• Pour into a half sheet pan that has been coated with nonstick spray.
• Bake 350F about 15-20 mins.
• Cool down.

In the meantime:

• Line mold of choice (in this case I used my grandmothers circa 1950 dessert cups) with plastic wrap.
• Press in ice cream of choice (we used mint chocolate cookie), and fill to the top.
• Using appropriate cutter, cut out brownie shape to fit on top of ice cream in mold.
• Wrap in plastic and let freeze at least 2 hours.

Meringue Topping:

• Egg whites          5 oz
• Sugar                    4 oz
• Vanilla                  1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice        1 tsp

Procedure:

• Combine all ingredients in kitchen aid bowl.
• Place over double boiler wile whisking lightly to dissolve sugar.
• Mixer on medium speed until medium peak, then high speed until stiff peak.
• Unmold and unwrap frozen brownie and ice cream.
• Using a piping bag with a star tip, pipe out the meringue to cover outside.
• Then either using a blowtorch, or your oven broiler, apply fire/heat to meringue to a medium brown color all around. I find the blowtorch achieves the best results, and is much more fun:)

Drizzle with chocolate sauce, and you’re done!

Enjoy!