Cinnamon Sugar Banana Lumpia

Cinnamon Sugar Banana Lumpia - made November 16, 2013 from Imperial Sugar

Want a super easy dessert recipe with caramelized bananas in a crispy wrapper topped with caramel and nutella?  Then read on, MacDuff.  This is reminiscent of turon, a Filipino dessert of bananas and sometimes langka (jackfruit) rolled into a lumpia wrapper and fried to crunchy goodness.  This is the healthier version since it involves baking rather than frying.  But it still has the same goodness of a "fried" banana.  I was only making this for myself so I halved the amount of brown sugar and cinnamon and only used 1 banana that I sliced and distributed between two lumpia wrappers. I still have leftover brown sugar-cinnamon but I'll use that for another dessert.

You can get lumpia wrappers at any Asian grocery store.  My mom gets them from 99 Ranch and I get them from shopping in her refrigerator since I rarely go to 99 Ranch myself and she always has them on hand for making lumpia :). This was super easy to make and they really did get crunchy except in the middle but that was okay.  The bananas caramelized in the baking and paired well with the brown sugar and cinnamon it was dredged in.  The only caution is when you roll them up in the lumpia wrapper, roll them tightly so that none of the melting insides leak out.  Otherwise they won't be as pretty.

Mine didn't come out as nice-looking as the ones on the Imperial Sugar site.  I could've wrapped the banana slices more tightly in the wrapper and made them more cylindrical instead of flat.  The original directions about how to roll them aren't very clear other than rolling into a cylinder but I like to wrap them completely, including the sides so I bring the bottom of the wrapper up over the bananas, fold over the two ends to almost meet in the middle (like an envelope) and roll the whole thing into the top, keeping the seam down during baking.  Regardless of their appearance, this was really good as the lumpia wrapper did get crispy in the oven and the baked banana caramelized beautifully.  Top with a little melted nutella and some drizzles of caramel?  Heaven in a bite.

3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
8 bananas, peeled and ends cut
8 lumpia wrappers*
confectioners' sugar for dusting, if desired
Salted caramel for drizzling 
Melted chocolate for drizzling

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Working one at a time, dredge banana in cinnamon sugar mixture and place banana on lumpia wrapper. Bring bottom edge of wrap tightly over banana, rolling from bottom to top until the top of sheet is reached, being careful not to tear wrapper. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.
4. Place wrapped bananas onto prepared baking sheet and lightly coat with cooking spray. Place into oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
5. Serve immediately, garnished with confectioners sugar (optional) and drizzle with salted caramel and melted chocolate, if desired.

*If lumpia wrappers are not available, you can substitute egg roll/spring roll wrappers.