Description
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
- Eight 3½-inch (9 cm) square wonton wrappers
- ¼ cup (60 mL) peanut butter (smooth or crunchy—your choice!)
- 1 banana, peeled and sliced in ¼-inch-thick (6 mm) slices
- 8 Rolo or Caramilk bar segments
- Peanut oil (for deep frying)
- Confectioner’s/icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
Instructions
- 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 (5 mL) 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.
- Before frying, see Fear of Frying (page 246).
- Pour oil into a small, tall pot until it is 3 inches (8 cm) deep. Heat oil until it reaches 350°F (177°C). 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 a paper towel to absorb excess oil.
- Dust with sugar (if desired). Let cool for 1 minute before serving.
Notes
Wonton wrappers are available in Asian groceries and in the refrigerated or frozen section of most grocery stores.
If you don’t have an oil thermometer, drop a piece of wonton wrapper into the oil around the time you think the oil is ready. It’s at the right temperature if the wrapper gets crispy in 5 to 8 seconds.
Wontons can be wrapped earlier in the day. Cover with a damp dishtowel and refrigerate. Do not let the wontons touch. To minimize stickage, dust the surface of the storage plate and the wontons themselves with cornstarch.
Excerpt printed with permission from Glutton for Pleasure: Signature Recipes, Epic Stories and Surreal Etiquette by Bob Blumer (Whitecap, 2010).