Notes: As I was selecting the second deep-fried item on our menu for our Hanukkah party, I was very excited to make this east-west fusion dessert. The recipe calls for infusing cream with sliced, seeded kumquats, and pouring the hot mixture over chopped chocolate. It wasn't clear whether the cooked fruit was to be strained out or not, but I (correctly) decided that they should stay.
Making the rolls was simple. I used almost three packages of wrappers (each one had 20 squares) for a double-batch of this recipe. I froze the whole batch in the morning, and fried them later in the afternoon. As the first batch cooked and started to brown, I realized I made a mistake: spring rolls != egg rolls! I bought the wrong wrappers! Biting into the still-warm dessert highlighted the difference: egg roll wrappers are much thicker and less crispy, especially when there are several layers. The texture was rather chewy, instead of shatteringly crisp.
There was another pitfall: the chocolate melted and started to ooze out of many of the rolls, so after a few batches, my bubbling pot of golden grapeseed oil began to resemble motor oil. Everything started coming out coated in dark, sooty particles of cocoa.
It was hard to resist molten, citrus-enhanced chocolate though, and they were a hit with all of our guests. But it would have been better with spring roll wrappers... next time!
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