Chocolate wontons
Think about how much you love crispy, crunchy Chinese or Vietnamese spring rolls. Now imagine how good they would taste if you replaced the bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, green onions and so on with melted milk chocolate, gooey caramel, crunchy peanut butter and slices of ripe banana. It’s a decadent combination that won’t leave you hungry in an hour.
Ingredients:
8 3½ x 3 ½-inch wonton wrappers
¼ cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy—your choice!)
1 banana, peeled and sliced into ¼-inch-thick slices
8 Rolo or Caramilk bar segments
powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
peanut oil for deep frying
corn starch for dusting tray
Place a small bowl of warm water beside wonton wrappers. Put a single wonton wrapper on a clean, dry surface in front of you. Schmear 1 teaspoon of peanut butter onto the center. Press down a banana slice on top of peanut butter and top with chocolate. Dip your finger in water and trace a circle on the wonton wrapper around the stack of ingredients (water is the glue of wonton wrappers). Pinch and seal wrapper around the ingredients. Be sure that seams are tightly sealed to keep frying oil from seeping in.
Pour oil into a small, tall pot until it is 3 inches deep. Heat oil to 350°F.
When oil is ready, fry 4 wontons at a time for approximately 1 minute, or until wonton wrappers are golden brown. Remove and place on paper towel to absorb excess oil. Dust with powdered sugar. Let cool for 1 minute before serving.
Yield: 8 dessert wontons
Uncommon goods: Wonton wrappers (available in the refrigerated or frozen section of most grocery stores); oil thermometer. If you don’t have an oil thermometer, when you think oil is ready, drop a piece of wonton wrapper into it. If wrapper gets crispy in 5 – 8 seconds, the oil is ready.
Level of difficulty: Wonton wrapping takes a bit of practice, but each wrapper costs about 3 cents so mistakes are cheap.
Active prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Advance work: Wontons can be wrapped earlier in the day. Cover with a damp dishtowel and refrigerate. Do not let wontons touch. To minimize stickage, dust the surface of the storage plate and the wontons themselves with corn starch.
Multiplicity: Additional wontons do not require extra frying oil
Music to cook by: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Genuine Negro Jig. Old-time string band music gets a new lease on life.
