Nutella Banana Gyoza

Yesterday I showed you how to make your own gyoza wrappers. When it comes to filling them, the sky is the limit! You’ll be hearing about a more traditional style of gyoza later this month in the Washoku Warrior roundup, so today I’m going to share a simple filling that is a bit more unexpected. After cooking up some savory gyoza for dinner the other day, I had leftover homemade wrappers. I couldn’t let those yummy wrappers go to waste, so I decided to whip up a dessert that would use them up. When I lived in France, my favorite crêpe stand was on the way from the train station to school. This meant that I had to pass it two times a day: once on the way to class, and once on the way home. This also meant that I probably ate more than my fair share of crêpes. My favorite was a crêpe filled with Nutella and sliced bananas. If you aren’t familiar with Nutella (gasp! blasphemy!), it is a chocolate hazelnut spread. But as the World Nutella Day webpage states, “Nutella is more than just a ‘chocolaty hazelnut spread,’ it is a way of life. From childhood memories to oozing hot crepes, from breakfasts on vacation to free-spooning sessions on the couch, Nutella is prominent in the memories of many children and grown-up children in the world.”
I decided to pay homage to my favorite crêpe by making a gyoza with the same fillings. These are SO easy and yummy, and unfortunately, SO addictive. You’re going to be seeing Nutella in my neck of the woods a bit more often, as I’ve taken up bell’ alimento’s Nutella Challenge.
Each month there will be lots of great Nutella recipes popping up in the blogosphere by food bloggers, too, so check them out by searching #Nutella or #TNC on Twitter, or by taking a look at The Nutella Challenge Blogroll.
bell’ alimento has already posted a yummy recipe for Nutella gelato that is now on my “must make” list. By the time World Nutella Day rolls around next February, you should have plenty of ways to celebrate. These gyoza make a very flexible dessert because you can either stuff yourself silly by eating way too many (wahoo!), or eat 1 or 2 for a small dessert. They cook up quickly, giving the outer wrapper the perfect amount of crunch and warming up the interior so that the Nutella is hot and gooey, but the banana isn’t overcooked.

Nutella Banana Gyoza
La Fuji Mama
Makes 20 dumplings
* Quantity is easily adjusted–just increase/decrease the number of gyoza wrappers and amount of banana to the number of gyoza you’d like to make

20 Gyoza wrappers
2 medium-sized ripe bananas, sliced
Nutella
Vegetable oil, for frying
Powdered sugar (to dust dumplings after cooking)

1. Place a dollop (approximately 2 teaspoons) of Nutella in the center of the gyoza wrapper. Place a slice of banana on top of the Nutella.
2. Dip your finger in a bowl of cold water and use it to wet the edge of half of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half over the filling and pinch it together in the center. Make pleats on one side of the dumpling, and then the other. Only pleat the top layer of the wrapper (the backside will remain smooth without pleats). For a good visual demonstration of how this is done, see this tutorial.
3. In a pan, heat a 1/2-inch layer of vegetable oil to 365 degrees Fahrenheit (after reaching temperature, reduce your heat slightly so that the temperature is maintained, rather than continuing to climb).
4. Place your gyoza carefully into the oil with the pleats facing up and out of the oil. I like cooking them in small batches (they cook very quickly) so that I don’t accidentally overcook them (it’s easier to keep up with the flipping if you are only worrying about a few)!
5. When the wrapper is golden brown, flip the gyoza over and cook the pleat side.
6. When the pleat side is golden brown, remove the gyoza from the oil using a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to cool slightly (and soak up extra oil).
7. When the gyoza have cooled slightly, put them on a plate and dust them with powdered sugar.
8. Now they’re ready to eat!

Other Nutella recipes here on LFM:
– Chocolate Chunk Nutella Cheesecake
– Tartelette’s Crème au Nutella

Coming Wednesday: Julia Child Goes to Japan