A step by step guide to Chinese dumpling making, video instruction included. Check out also my vegan dumpling recipes.
Chinese new year is next week, what a better time to share my dumpling recipes. Chinese tradition for lunar new year’s eve is family gather together to make and eat Jiaozi-boiled dumplings, which means union and prosperity. There isn’t any standard recipe, since every family has its favorite with no recipe written down. It just get passed from one generation to another.
I still remember when we made dumplings together with my parents. Later, at my sister’s house. You know, she seems always not sure about her seasoning. She will make one Jiaozi, cook it, taste it, then decide if she needs to adjust the seasoning. If you have never made dumplings before or rarely make them, the sure way to have the saltiness to your liking is to cook about a tablespoon of filling in a frypan then taste it, just like if you were to make sausages. In case you added too much salt you cannot take away, you can add a tablespoon or two of sugar to balance it out.
How many dumplings can you eat in one meal? When I was about 8 years old, I counted how many I could actually eat, it was 24. A record I haven’t been able to break since then.
To learn how to make Jiaozi is very important for Chinese families, that is why I’m teaching my kids too. They are still little, the older one is in kindergarten, but see how they are eager to help me making dumplings.
We’ve actually been eating dumplings for a couple of days now, every time I took a few pictures, made a few video clips, but I’m still not able to get a shot of cooked dumplings, that how fast they got eaten!
We’ve made the classic pork chive filling, also this beef celery version.
For vegan and vegetarian friends, see my vegan dumpling recipes.
If you are a seasoned dumpling maker and would like to share your recipes, please shoot me an email.
If you are new to dumpling making, please watch my video and give it a try.
If you need some troubleshooting leave your comments below.
Happy Chinese New Year!
x, Qi
Flour and water: the only TWO ingredients needed to make dumpling dough.
Chinese dumpling wrappers
Prep
Inactive
Total
Yield 60 dumpling wrappers
Ingredients
Make about 60 dumplings:
- heaping 4.5 cup all purpose flour (600g)
- about 1 1/4 cup water (about 300ml), adjust according to local humidity
Instructions
To make the dough:
You can use hand or a stand mixer.
- Measuring flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of flour, pour 1 cup of water in, gradually mix in all the flour, add more water if needed, until it forms a cohesive ball. It does not need to be smooth. Just put enough water for flour to hold together. If dough ball sticks to your hands, it means there are too much water. In this case, knead in one tbsp more of flour at a time until dough ball does not stick to your hands anymore.
- Cover dough ball with a damp cheesecloth, let it rest for at least 1 hour up to 4 hours at room temperature. Or it can be kept in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Wrap it with plastic wrap after 4 hours.
To roll out wrappers:
- When you are ready to make wrappers, knead dough for 5 to 10 minutes on a floured surface, until it turns into a smooth ball. Cut dough ball into 4 pieces, work with one piece at a time and cover the rest with plastic wrap.
- Shape one piece of dough into a cylinder, stretch and roll it until it turns into a rope form (about one inch in diameter). Cut it into half inch thick pieces. Since a knife will crush down dough rope, with every cut, roll the dough rope back and forth, so cutted pieces won’t be too oblong (see video).
- Using your fingers, shape every small pieces of dough into cylinder form, then use palm of your hand to flatten them into round disks of 1 inch in diameter.
- Roll individual disk one at a time into a dumpling wrapper. Using a small straight rolling pin, use your dominant hand, roll rolling pin back and forth on half of dough disk, turn it 45 degree with your other hand, you will have a round wrapper of 1/16 inch thickness after about 10-15 turns (see video).
- The wrapper will be thin on the outer edge and thick in the middle, that’s what we want, since outer edges will be sealed and become thicker. Alternatively, you can use a pasta machine to flatten a dough disk gradually into a wrapper (start from setting 0 until reach setting 5 on a manual pasta machine). The thickness of wrapper will be almost uniform in this case.
Courses Main
Cuisine Chinese
Dipping sauce (optional)
Prep
Total
Ingredients
- 2 part Chinese dark vinegar or balsamic vinegar
- 1 part light soy sauce
- 0.5 part sesame oil
Optional:
- chilli flakes or chilli oil
- Toasted white sesame seeds
- minced garlic
- minced ginger
Courses sauce and dressing
Cuisine Chinese
This is so awesome Qi! Thank you for sharing all your recipes & tips for making dumplings. We’ve been wanting to learn how so this comes at the perfect time!
That’s great! The homemade dumplings are the best. And you can custom fillings as you want. Let me know how they turn out.