Fried Won Ton Roses

Ingredients

won ton wrappers
flavored cream cheese - You can use any flavored cream cheese or you can make a delicious roasted garlic artichoke filling like I did. See the recipe below.
egg wash - A little water mixed with an egg.
vegetable oil - Use whatever oil you like for frying.

Supplies

3 ½" and 1 ½" round cookie cutters
pastry brush
fryer or a stockpot for frying

Make artichoke cream cheese if using.

This recipe makes 1 ½ cups.

Ingredients

garlic cloves
olive oil
marinated artichokes
cream cheese
Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese (Parmesan)
salt and pepper

Roast garlic and make artichoke cream cheese.

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees (I use a toaster oven for such a small amount of garlic)
• Place 4 small or 2 large garlic cloves on a piece of aluminum foil.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Fold up the foil to seal well. Roast for 30 minutes or until the garlic is nicely browned and very soft.  Cut off one tip of the garlic and squeeze the garlic out of the peels.
• Drain a 14-ounce jar of artichokes well. Place artichokes, garlic, 8 ounces of softened cream cheese, and ½ cup of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 
• If you don't have a food processor, finely chop the artichokes and use a handheld mixer or spoon to mix the ingredients.
• Use 20 teaspoons (a little less than ½ cup) for the Fried Won Ton Roses recipe. Serve the remaining cheese with tortilla chips, pita chips, or crackers.

Cut circles out of won ton wrappers.

• Using the round cookie cutters, cut 20 of the 3 ½" rounds and 112 of the 1 ½" rounds out of the won ton wrappers. 
• While you work, you may want to cover the won ton wrappers with a damp towel, so that the wrappers don't dry out.

Fill the won ton rose centers.

• Set one 3 ½" round of won ton wrapper on the work surface.
• Brush eggwash over the entire surface.
• Spoon 1 teaspoon of flavored cream cheese in the center of the round.
• Bring two sides of the wrapper up over the filling pinching them together in the center.
• Bring the other two sides of the wrapper up to meet in the middle and pinch all along the edges to seal the won ton shut.
• Brush egg wash over the top part of the wrapper (the areas of the wrapper that are not filled with cream cheese.)
• Pinch and twist the top of the filled won ton into a point.
• From now on in this recipe, this will be known as the "base."

Add the first rose petal.

• Brush egg wash over one half of a 1 ½" won ton round (from now on I'll call these petals.)
• Wrap the petal around the pointed part of the base attaching the egg-washed half of the petal directly to the base and leaving the upper half extended above the base forming a tube.

Continue adding rose petals.

• Brush egg wash over the bottom of another petal and wrap it around the center petal flaring out the outer edge of the petal and pinching the bottom edge (the half brushed with egg wash) around the base.
• Continue to add petals. As you add each petal you want to overlap the last petal you added.

Finish adding more won ton petals to the rose.

• Continue to add petals until you have added 5 or 6.
• You will have enough petals to have some roses with 5 petals and some with 6 petals.
• You could make some bigger with 7 or 8 like the flower on the far right and some that are smaller buds. It's up to you how full you'd like them.

Fry the won ton roses in oil.

• Preheat oil in a fryer or in a stockpot to 375 degrees.
• Place a few won ton roses in the hot oil and fry until crisp and golden brown.
• Continue to fry a few roses at a time, allowing the oil to come back to 375 degrees before each batch is fried.
• Once fried, place roses on a few layers of paper towels to allow the excess oil to drain.

Storage

If you need to make these ahead of time, you can assemble the roses and keep them covered and refrigerated for up to 8 hours. Then fry them just before or during your party. Or you can place them in an airtight container with a damp paper towel attached to the underside of the lid (just hang it over the top of the container and close the lid.) for up to 2 days before frying.

I actually made a batch, put some of them in the refrigerator, and ate them the next day.  They were surprisingly still crispy and not bad at all, but I definitely preferred them the day they were fried.

Related Recipes

If you don't have time to make these beautiful roses, you can make these other bridal shower appetizers instead.

These flower-shaped won tons are easier to make by cutting flower-shaped won tons and baking them in muffin pans in the oven.

Each of these flower-shaped won tons is filled with roasted red pepper pesto and creamy goat cheese but you can fill them with whatever you like.

See more appetizer and dessert recipes for a Bridal Shower or Wedding, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day too.