Kid's recipe is "dessert of the week"

Lauren Hammond

How many kids can go to a fancy downtown restaurant and order a dessert made from a personal recipe? Fourteen-year-old Lauren Hammond of Weldon Springs has.

For the last week in July, "Lauren's Berried Chocolate Tartlets" was the "dessert of the week" at the Clark Street Grill. That's the restaurant located in the Westin Hotel in downtown St. Louis. (For the "tartlet" recipe, see below.)

The "berried chocolate tartlet" recipe won Lauren a $10,000 college scholarship in the Pillsbury Kids' Bake-Off competition. She won in the dessert category. The head contest judge was Douglas Knopp, the executive chef for the Clark Street Grill.

Knopp invited Lauren to serve as a consultant as his staff adapted that winning recipe for use in his commercial restaurant. The grill features a "dessert of the week" on its menu.

Lauren is a home-school student who is starting her ninth grade this fall. She's been baking up special recipes at home since she was eight years old.

"I've always liked to experiment in the kitchen. I'm an early morning baker. I'll wake up at 3 a.m. and do muffins or something for the family breakfast," she said.

But, mostly, she likes to create desserts. And most of them include chocolate.

Her "tartlet" recipe combined chocolate pudding and pie filling with strawberries. This mixture is on a baked crust featuring pie crust and chocolate-chip cookie dough. Whipped topping and chocolate sprinkles decorate the top.

She said she experimented for about two months before settling on the final "tartlet" recipe. Her first choice for a sharp-tasting fruit--to contrast with the sweetness of chocolate--was raspberries.

"But, when I used whole raspberries, they just formed sort of a lump," Lauren said. She said she needed something that looked prettier. In the Pillsbury contest, the dessert's look was an important factor in whether an entry would win.

With strawberries, it was possible to arrange sliced pieces into a flower-like decoration.

She's been a winner in other food competitions.

Her "tropical volcano treasures" won first place in the Dole Fruit Co. dessert contest.

This was another chocolate-and-fruit-based dessert that looks like a volcano with a red-colored "lava" mixture coming out of the top.

She also was also first runner-up in a Companion Bread "Stack It Up" sandwich competition. This time the entry didn't include chocolate. Key ingredient were peanut butter, apple jelly and sliced apples.

The presentation was enhanced by making this a triple-decker sandwich.

Lauren doesn't spend all of her time in the kitchen.

She and her older sister, Stephanie, were two of the runners who carried the Olympic torch through the streets of St. Louis on its way to Athens, Greece. Seventeen-year-old Stephanie had carried the 2002 Winter Olympics torch when it came through St. Louis.

This summer, Lauren helped organize the July 4th parade in her St. Charles County neighborhood. She lined up sponsors and made parade signs. At the event, she helped fill and pass out "goodie" bags for parade participants.

Later on this fall, she and her family will participate in the Deutsch Country Days celebration in Marthasville, Mo. That's a two-day event celebrating the German heritage of the area west of St. Louis.

For that event, Lauren dresses up in period clothing and demonstrates the old-fashioned, washboard-way of cleaning clothes. That includes a wash tub, a washboard and plenty of rubbing by Lauren.

She said, "Kids who come to the event with their families love to help wash the clothes. Some kids will stay for several hours and help us wash the clothes."

Then, there are piano and French language lessons. She also swims with the Whitmore Waves swim team.

But, she hasn't forgotten about food and baking.

She's working with an area hair salon owner on a plan for catering staff lunches. That way, the staff won't have to go out and eat fast-food every day. "The owner also told me, if I write a cookbook, she'll help me sell it," Lauren said.

She's not sure how profitable a catering business would be. But, with the hair salon as a customer, "it'll help keep the cost of my hair care down," she said.

 

Lauren's "berried chocolate tartlet" recipe

Here's the recipe that won Lauren $10,000 in the "Pillsbury Kids Bake-off" Contest:

Ingredients:

• 3 Pillsbury Frozen Home Baked Classics Chocolate Chip Cookies (from 21.6 oz. pkg.).
• 1 Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust (from 15-oz. pkg.), softened as directed on package.
• 1 (3.9 oz) pkg, instant chocolate pudding and pie filling mix
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups cold milk
• 1 1/4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided.
• 10 fresh strawberries, sliced
• Chocolate candies (finely chopped) or sprinkles, if desired.

Preparation directions:

1. Bake three cookies as directed on package. Increase oven temperature to 450-degrees F
2. Remove pie crust from pouch. Unfold crust; press out fold lines. With 2 1/2-inch round cutter, cut 10 rounds from crust. Press each round in bottom and up sides of ungreased muffin cup. Prick bottom and sides with a fork. Bake at 450-degreesF for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.
3. Meanwhile in large bowl, combine pudding mix and milk; whisk until well mixed, about 2 minutes. Stir in one cup of whipped topping.
4. Carefully loosen tartlet shells from muffin tin onto cooling rack. Arrange sliced strawberries, pointed side up, around the edge of each tartlet. Crumble 1/4 to 1/3 cookie (about 1 tablespoon crumbs) in each tartlet. Spoons about two tablespoons of chocolate filling over the cookie crumbs.
5. Using remaining 1/4 cup whipped topping, top each tartlet with about 1 teaspoon whipped topping. Garnish with finely chopped chocolate or sprinkles. Store in refrigerator.

Makes 10 servings