What you need:
- 3 large eggs
- 175g caster sugar
- 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream
- 3 large cookies
- Foil
- Baking tray
- Mixing bowl
- Hand mixer
- Spoon
How to:
Ask an adult for help with the oven and making the meringue.
- Preheat the oven to 240 degrees Celsius.
- To make the meringue, first separate the eggs. Put the three
egg whites in a mixing bowl and whisk using a hand mixer. Once the
egg whites stand in stiff peaks, add in the sugar a tablespoon at a
time and continue to whisk until the all the sugar is mixed
in.
- Cover a baking tray in foil.
- Put the cookies on the foil. Put a scoop of ice cream on top of
each cookie.
- Cover each cookie and the ice cream completely with
meringue.
- Put the baking tray in the oven for around five minutes, until
the meringue is golden brown.
- Put them on a plate and eat them up!
Is the ice cream still cold? What do you think keeps the ice
cream cold even though it's been in a hot oven for five
minutes?
What's happening:
Why didn't the ice cream melt? The secret is the meringue!
Insulation keeps hot things hot and cold things cold. Meringue is a
really good insulator because it's full of air. When you beat the
egg whites, this adds lots of air into the mixture.
Heat travels through food easily if the molecules in the food
are close together. Air is made up of gases, so the molecules are
far apart. There's lots of air in the meringue, so heat can't
travel easily through it. Meringue is an insulator and keeps the
ice cream cool.
Have a look at this video of Hooked on Science's Jason Lindsey
taking some baked ice cream out of the oven. It looks
delicious!