January 8, 2011: Banana Notella Tortillas

For the Saturday night BYO dinner, I decided to expand my tortilla trials to dessert.  I've seen Nutella tortillas and Nutella-banana tortillas at Mexi-inspired eateries like Trippy Taco and it seemed the obvious way to go.  This being a vegan gathering, it meant I'd also be making my own Nutella, or "notella" as Veganomicon's Isa and Terry dubbed their version.

Notella requires a food processor but is otherwise very, very easy.  My ingredient list takes inspiration from two recipes, the not-tella in Veganomicon and the recipe for easy chocolate-hazelnut spread on Su Good Sweets.  It's nigh on impossible to grind hazelnuts to Ferrero's silky smoothness but with a little persistence it is possible to blend nuts to a velvetty butter.  This notella is rich though not quite as sickeningly oily as its namesake; I reckon I'll find some other good uses for it in vegan desserts.

The tortillas came together in the same manner as my previous attempt.  Without the aid of a tortilla press this time, I flattened them the best I could with the back of a frypan (à la Anna) and then pushed them out a bit further with a rolling pin.  I added a little icing sugar to the dough to enhance the sweetness but didn't notice it at all in the finished dessert.

Assembly was pretty simple - spread half of each tortilla thickly with notella, add a few banana slices and fold into half moons.  These were pretty good when assembled fresh with warm tortillas, OK after some time in transit and frankly terrible as fridge-stored leftovers the next day.  So go fresh or go home.

Sweet tortillas were a worthwhile experiment but probably not one I'll revisit.  The notella, on the other hand, is worthy of numerous replications.

Notella
(inspired by recipes from Veganomicon and Su Good Sweets)

2 cups skinned, roasted hazelnuts
3/4 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons Frangelico
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
generous pinch salt
1/4 cup cocoa
up to 1/2 cup peanut oil, as needed

Process the hazelnuts to a butter, scraping down the sides of the container occasionally. This will take several minutes; keep an eye on your food processor and potential overheating.  Add the icing sugar, Frangelico, vanilla, salt and cocoa and blend thoroughly.  Add the peanut oil, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the consistency you want.

Sweet tortillas
(an adaptation of the tortilla recipe in Viva Vegan)

2 cups Mexican-style masa harina
1 tablespoon icing sugar
generous pinch of salt
1 cup warm water

Mix together the masa harina, icing sugar and salt in a bowl.  Add the water gradually, mixing it with the flour to form a firm, smooth dough (not too sticky).  Knead the dough briefly.  

Break off generous tablespoons of the dough and place them between two sheets of baking paper.  Squash and/or roll the dough balls into rounds that are 1-2mm thick.  Fry the tortillas in an ungreased pan for no more than a minute on each side.  Rest cooked tortillas under a damp teatowel and serve them as soon as they're all ready.