Wonton Desserts

With some of my leftover wonton wrappers, I decided to make a dessert. Of course, there is chocolate...dessert is never complete without chocolate.

Wonton desserts

Banana wontons

1/2 package of wonton wrappers
1 banana
1/4 cup chocolate chips
Sugar and cinnamon for dusting

1. If frying, bring oil up to 350F. If baking, preheat oven to 350F and prepare baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Dice banana.
3. Put a small amount of banana and a few chocolate chips (do not overstuff) at the tip of the wonton closest to you. Fold in side tips and roll into tight roll.
4. If baking, place on baking sheet and bake until browned. If frying place in oil and cook until browned. Be sure not to overcrowd oil as this will drop the temperature.
5. When finished cooking, dust with sugar and cinnamon.

Raspberry wontons

1/2 pacakge wonton wrappers
1/4 cup raspberry preserves
1/4 cup chocolate chips
Sugar for dusting

1. If frying, bring oil to 350F. If baking, preheat oven to 350F and prepare baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Put a small amount of raspberry preserves close to end of wonton wrapper closest to you. Place a few chocolate chips over preserves. Fold in side tips and roll tip closest to you towards opposite ends to make a roll with edges tucked in.
3. If baking, place on baking sheet and bake until browned. If frying, place in oil and fry until browned. Be sure not to overcrowd oil as this drops the temperature and will lead to soggy rolls. Remove from oven or oil and dust with sugar.

Caramelized Banana Upside Down Bread

During our most recent cruise aboard the Carnival Legend, we had a pretty busy day at one of our stops. We hadn't eaten lunch and by the time we got back on the ship, it was getting near dinner time. We had to pass the buffet to get back to our room, so I decided to pick up a quick treat to get me through until dinner. When I saw this treat, I knew it had to be mine....there was what looked like banana bread (yummy enough in itself) topped with caramelized bananas. OMG! It was one of the top 5 most yummiest things I ate during that cruise....and I ate a lot, so it is really saying something! I had to have another piece, so after dinner I went back up to the buffet, but alas, it must have been a lunch treat, and there wasn't any to be had for dessert :(. I have been dreaming of this treat since we got off the cruise. We had friends over and my brothers were both in town, so I decided to try to recreate it. I found a few recipes and decided to try the following Rachel Ray recipe. I loved the caramelized banana topping, but was not 100% crazy about the banana bread...I think she makes a banana cake, and it was just too soft for me. I will definitley try again and repost, but if you want a banana cake try this one out!

Caramelized Banana Upside Down Cake (bread recipe to follow when I have more people to experiment on/feed)

4 bananas (yellow spotty ones)
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp butter
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used applesauce instead)

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
2. Trim both ends off of 3 bananas and place ends in a separate bowl. Slice banana lengthwise into 3-4 long strips.
3. In a heavy skillet, put 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 Tbsp water over medium- medium-high heat. DO NOT STIR. Allow to come to a boil. Cook until water is evaporated and mixture comes to an amber color. Remove from the heat and add in butter. After butter has melted, add bananas cut side down into caramel mixture. Put over low heat for 1 minute. Transfer the bananas to the prepared loaf pan. Arrange cut side down trying to completely cover bottom of pan. Drizzle caramel over bananas.
4. In a medium bowl, mash remaining banana and trimmed edges. Add in 1/2 cup and mix well. Beat in the whole egg, egg white, and vanilla.
5. Mix together dry ingredients -flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt-in separate bowl (I never do this). Add to wet ingredients and add oil/applesauce. Stir until well combined. Pour batter over bananas and caramel in loaf pan.
6. Bake at 325F 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes, then invert over a platter.

YUM!!!

Banana Pudding

So as promised, here is another yummy banana recipe. One of our friends loves banana pudding as do I, so I decided to whip up a batch to use up some of the awesome free bananas I got from the guy at the fruit stand. I love the Publix banana pudding, but on my quick search, I couldn't find a copy cat recipe, so I decided to stick with the original Nilla wafer recipe. Now I used skim milk as this is all I ever have in the house, and I had some issues with the thickness, so I did some tweaking, which I will list below, to make mine into a pudding consistency (vs the liquid I had when I originally started).

Nilla Wafer Original Banana Pudding

3/4 cup sugar (divided)
1/3 cup flour
Dash salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
45 Nilla Wafers
5 ripe bananas (I only used 3)
Additional Nilla wafers and bananas for decoration
***I also had to use 1 Tbsp cornstarch****

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. (Note- this recipe has a meringue topping which is why you will need the oven, I could definitley have skipped the meringue and still had a great pudding. If you decide you don't want the meringue, skip this step.)
2. Prepare a double boiler. In the top of the double boiler, combine 1/2 cup sugar and flour. Blend in 3 eggs yolks and milk. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. ****Now at this point, my pudding was still just liquid. What I did was add 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and then put the pudding into a pot over medium heat. Stirring constantly until it bubbles and is thick.*****
3. Spread a small amount of the pudding onto the bottom of a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Top with 1/3 bananas and 1/3 Nilla wafers. Top with pudding. Repeat layers ending with pudding.
4. ****Do these parts if you want the meringue topping, otherwise, just start enjoying the tasty pudding.******** Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add in 1/4 sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Spoon on top of pudding making sure it goes to edges and covers all pudding.
5. Bake at 350 F foe 10- 15 minutes or until meringue is browned.
6. Cool. Garnish with Nilla wafers and banana slices before serving.

Grilled Banana Splits

Like most others, we decided to have a family get together for Memorial Day. Of course, since the weather is so warm and sunny here in Florida, we decided to have a barbeque. We had the yummiest burgers, hot dogs, and chicken with all the typical sides- corn on the cob, potato salad, and baked beans. For dessert, I thought why not stick with the grill and make some grilled fruit. I went to my local fruit stand for some inspiration. They keep their spotty bananas in the cooler and mark them WAY down (less than 30 cents per pound). The thing is these bananas are perfect on the inside. The skin is spotty, some of the bananas are mushy, but some are still firm. Well, I bought about 6, and the guy told me to take the whole box for FREE since he was going to toss them! I got about 30 bananas free! SCORE!!! Also, in other words, look for more banana recipes in the near future!

Grilled Banana Splits

10 ripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbps ground cinnamon
Ice cream of your choice
Sundae toppings of your choice

1. Preheat grill to medium.
2. Leaving skins on the bananas, cut both tips off and cut lengthwise down the middle (like you would see in a banana split).
3. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon until well blended. Sprinkle generously over bananas.
4. Put bananas skin side up on the grill. Cook approx 3 minutes and turn skin side down (don't let sugar burn, but it will be melty). Bananas are done when they start to pull away from the skins.
5. Peel bananas and top with ice cream and toppings.

The warmth of the bananas with the cold ice cream...So good!