Kids Cuisine

Our adventure this afternoon involved a partial package of won-ton wrappers and an open pantry and fridge to see just what we could stuff a won-ton with. As it turns out, the question should have been what can’t we stuff a won-ton with, because those little squares of pastry will hold just about anything inside them.

The first step to making some gooey won-ton goodness was deciding how to cook our creations. In our experience, won-ton and eggroll skins really benefit from a bath in hot oil, whereas oven baking leads to an unpleasant chewiness. So our first pair of won-tons were filled with peanut butter and chocolate chips. One went into hot oil, one went into the oven, and as I suspected, while the oven-baked one tasted okay, the texture of the skin was tough and chewy; the hot oil one was crisp and flaky and quite wonderful. Hey, sometimes the splurge also makes the most sense.

Then we needed to choose from our plethora of fillings. Our favorite combinations seem to center around chocolate and peanut butter, and other things we could combine with those. The pretzel stick addition was particularly inspired, although I also found the pear and raisin combo to be delightful and not too sweet. The one filling that didn’t work at all was a half of marshmallow. As anyone who has ever microwaved a marshmallow knows, the little buggers tend to expand before melting all over, and this created a bit of an inedible mess. We had some winners and some failures, but the whole point was to have fun and try new things.

Make your own filled won-tons! Gather some won-ton skins, some water for sealing the edges, and whatever sweet and savory fillings you can find. Some of our favorites are peanut butter, nutella, chocolate chips, sliced apple, sliced pear, chocolate chips, raisins, cinnamon, banana slices, shredded coconut, and pretzel sticks. Place one won-ton skin on your work surface and place a few toppings in the center — being careful not to use too much, about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter is perfect with 6 or 7 chocolate chips. Moisten your finger with water and run it around the edge of the won-ton. Now grab a second skin and place it on top, pressing firmly all the way around to seal the edges. Now you’re ready to cook your won-ton.

To fry filled won-tons in hot oil, heat the oil at a depth of about 1 inch in a cast-iron skillet. Heat it to around 350ºF; the won-tons only need about 3 minutes to cook completely. Dust the cooked won-tons with powdered sugar, or sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. To bake filled won-tons (although not recommended), place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray, and spray the filled wontons. Bake at 350ºF for about 10 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar before eating.