Homemade Asian Dumpling Skins Recipe (2024)

At times, I like to make some dim sum at home. The usual dim sum that always make an appearance on my dinner table are siu mai 烧卖 (pork and prawn dumplings), spring onion pancakes (葱油饼), steamed fish balls, and blanched green vegetables (油菜). However, this time round I feel like making some pork and chives dumplings. So I bought the ready made dumpling skins a day ahead.

Unfortunately, the ready made dumpling skins seems to have gone mouldy with the appearance of little black dots on the skins. I was so disappointed and felt so cheated at the same time because I only bought the skin just a day before making my dumplings, and furthermore it had not even pass the best before date, which are 10 days later from my purchased date. I guess these particular Asian shop had not been storing the skins properly that cause it to be mouldy, and I am totally banning myself from getting any chilled products from them anymore. So an important tips, if you ever bought any ready made dumpling or wonton skins, do make sure there isn’t any dots on the skin.

I can get back to the shop to get an exchange since I still have the purchased receipt with me. But I ain’t going to do that as I am not confident that the other packs will not be mouldy and not willing to risk it again. Hence instead of getting the exchange, I decided to make the dumpling skins myself from scratch since I have all the ingredients ready.

To make this dumpling skins, I used a special wheat flour which sometimes also known as Hong Kong flour. Of course, you can always substitutes it with plain/ all purpose flour if you do not have any Hong Kong flour in your pantry. Then the next thing you will be wondering is why Hong Kong flour and what type of flour is that? Hong Kong flour, is also known as soft wheat flour or sometimes waterlily flour (香港水仙面粉). This milling/ bleaching process of this flour provides a whiter, softer, finer and lower gluten flour which will results in a silkier and chewy dough. These make this flour suitable in making the dumplings, paus and cakes. Another type of flour that have similar characteristics is the Italian doppio zero or “00” flour, which are usually used to make pizza, pasta and cakes can also be used as a substitutes.

The recipe of this dumpling skins are suitable for making Chinese dumplings varieties (jiao zi, 饺子 or guo tie, 锅贴) that you can get at a dim sum restaurants (excluding the one with translucent and wonton skins), Japanese gyoza, and Korean mandu. You can either steamed, boiled or pan fry those dumplings wrapped in this skin.

To make this skin, you can always prepare it ahead of time if you like. Keep the skins in the fridge covered with cling wrap and use it in within 3 days. And if there’s any leftover, it can be kept frozen, and thaw completely before the next usage again.

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INGREDIENTS
(Makes about 70 – 80 pcs)

3 cups soft wheat flour/ plain flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups hot boiling water

STEPS

1. Add flour, cornstarch and salt into a bowl and mix well.

2. Make a well in the middle of the bowl.

3. Add in 1 cup hot boiling water, and mix well using a spatula. Then continue with more hot boiling water as required.

*Each brand and type of flour requires different amount of water. I used 2 cups of hot boiling water in this recipe. Always start with 1 cup of water, then add a bit at a time slowly.

4. Then use your hand to knead the dough until it comes together, smooth and not sticky. Cover with cling wrap and set aside to rest for at least 30 minutes.

*Make sure you tough test touch the dough with a finger or two first, to ensure it is not too hot to handle. If it’s too hot, you can always allow it to cool for about 5 minutes before kneading it.

5. Lightly flour the work bench.

6. Take a small amount of dough, and roll it out as thin as possible to about 1 – 2mm thick using a rolling pin.

*Keep flour the dough if needed to avoid it from sticking to the workbench and rolling pin.

*If you own a pasta maker, you can use the pasta maker to do this step too.

7. Use a cookie cutter to cut it into round shape.

*I use cookie cutter to cut the dough to ensure even shape and size.

8. Repeat steps 5 – 7 until all the dough are used up. Ensure each pieces of the skin are lightly dusted with flour to avoid them from sticking together while stacking them.

*Since the dough are always dusted with extra flour to avoid it from sticking together, there are chances that the remaining dough becomes a little tough and dry after step 7. Do not worry, just add a tsp of water at a time and further knead the dough until it becomes soft again.

9. The dumpling skins are ready to be used. Keep the skins in the fridge covered with cling wrap if not using it immediately, and use it within 3 days. Else keep it frozen in the freezer and thaw it completely before usage.