For the longest time, I've been looking for and testing recipes that mirror the dumplings I grew up eating from my local Chinese Restaurant, Beijing. The dumplings were soft and chewy, with the best texture of dumpling I've ever had from a takeout place, and when I moved from CT, I missed those dumplings so bad. These have finally satisfied that craving. You can fill them with whatever you want, but i like beef and cabbage with some garlic, ginger and hint of spice. They also work with pork, chicken, and vegetarian dumpling fillings!
Using a kitchen scale, measure 500g of special bun flour into a large bowl. Add the salt
*I buy my special bun flour at Good Fortune, an Asian grocery store. If you can't get it, you can use All Purpose Flour. It won't be quite as smooth as the Special Bun Flour, but you'll get close!
To your bowl, add the water. Take chopsticks, or a wooden spoon and mix until combined. Once combined, mix and knead with your hands until no loose flour is left in the bowl.
Cover the dough with a clean dish towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough, pressing down and turning over and over until the dough is very smooth. The surface of the dough should not be dimpled.
Cover the dough again and let it rest for 40 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl and poke a hole through the center. Twist your hands through the hole until the dough resembles a donut. Cut the dough into equal small sections, approximately 12-14g, but you can make them as big or as small as you want.
Using a dough roller, roll out the dumpling wrappers into thin, even circles. Add about 2 tsp of filling to the center of each dumpling wrapper. Crimp or seal the dumplings so that the filling doesn't leak out.
My favorite way to cook these!
In a Non-Stick pan, add 2 tsp of vegetable oil. Over medium high heat, add your dumplings, bottom side down. Let the dumplings cook until the bottoms are golden brown, approximately 4 minutes. Get some water, enough to cover up 1/6 of the bottom of the dumplings and a lid. Add the water and place the lid on the pan. Turn the heat down to medium low. Let the dumplings steam until all the water has evaporated. Remove the lid and let cook a few more minutes until all the water is gone.
Serve with desired sauces. I like them with Kewpie Mayo, or a Soy Sauce based dipping sauce with sesame seeds and garlic.
30 servings
4