Cream Cheese Wontons

4 comments Dinner

Feb 29

Confession: Sometimes I buy Chinese food just for the wontons. I found this recipe and thought, “really, how hard could this be?”. Apparently it was harder than I thought, or more specifically, it exceeded my skill set. But to my credit, nearly burning down my house didn’t keep me from trying again after I set the first batch on fire. With that said, don’t be intimidated – now that I understand where I went wrong (and you have the benefit of learning from my mistakes) I would totally make these again.

Directions:

Lightly grease (or spray with non-stick cooking spray) a cutting board or cookie sheet.
Lay out 12 wonton wrappers on a clean surface.

Add a teaspoon of cream cheese in the center of the wrapper and wet the edges of the wrapper with a little bit of water (just enough to make it stick).
Cinch the edges together, ensuring that you squeeze out all of the air.

Put the finished wonton on the greased cookie sheet and cover with a clean, damp towel to keep them moist while you make the rest of your wontons.
Heat 1” of olive oil to 350 degrees F in a skillet or frying pan.

I’ll be honest here – I have no idea how you heat something on a stovetop to 350 degrees. If you actually know how, you can disregard this – if you don’t, read on but I will not guarantee the outcome. I originally heated the oil on high heat for 10 minutes or so – when I put the wontons in, I thought my kitchen was going to catch on fire. Fail.

After I cleared out the smoke, I lowered the temperature to the center of low and middle heat. This was still a bit hot, but I think that is because it hadn’t cooled off all of the way. So, I think if you heat the oil on mid-heat just until a sprinkle of flour sizzles, you should be okay.

Once your oil is at the desired heat, put the wontons in the oil and fry for about 2 minutes.
Flip over the wontons and keep frying for an additional 1-1.5 minutes, or until they begin to brown evenly and turn crispy.
Remove from the oil using a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Serve hot with chili sauce or another dipping sauce of your choice.