Cooking with Kelly: Gourmet desserts

Despite my declared disdain of organic grocery stores, I still find them interesting because of their willingness to educate the public. Both at Whole Foods and Wild Oats, there are classes and discussions about food and techniques. Last week, I went over to my local Wild Oats to take a gourmet dessert class with a friend.

The class was an hour long and was taught by Culinary Concepts' owner Judith Berger. The New Zealand native attended culinary school in order to become a pastry chef and now owns this cooking school. While her classes are generally start at $55, this one was only $10. The catch was we didn't get to do any of the techniques ourselves, it was more of a demonstration. But we did get samples and recipes.

The chocolate mousse on the left didn't have enough time to set up, but I did learn some interesting tips, such as do not use chocolate chips if you're going to melt them because they have stabilizers to keep them looking like that and it will interfere with the process. The banana fools recipe was different, I'd never had a dessert like that. Either way, I recommend giving these recipes a try because they could be created easily enough to impress company or a date. Just don't expect me to use organic ingredients to do it.

Chocolate Mousse

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup milk

4 eggs, separated

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract

mint leaves for garnish

In the top of a double broiler, combine the gelatin and sugar, stir in the milk. Lightly beat the egg yolks and mix into the milk mixture. Place over simmering water and stir constantly, cook until mixture thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, stir until the chocolate has melted. Pour into a clean bowl and set the bowl in a second bowl filled with ice. Stir in the peppermint flavoring and chill until the mixture is a thick as honey.

Beat the egg white to soft peaks or until they stay in the bowl when inverted. Gently fold the egg white into the chocolate mixture and pout into a one-quart mold. Chill until firm, unmold and garnish with mint.

Serves 8.

Banana Fool

3/4 cup mashed banana, about two

2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

3/4 cup chilled whipping cream

Chocolate curls for garnish

In a bowl, mash together the banana, brown sugar and lemon juice. In a chilled bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks and gently fold in the banana mixture. Divide the fool between four parfait glasses and decorate with the chocolate curls.