How To Make Dumpling Dough - El Mundo Eats (2024)

How to make dumpling dough at home to get soft and chewy dumpling wrappers that are elastic and don't tear. In this recipe, we're showing you how to make dumpling dough for boiling that's easy and cheap. It's also freezer-friendly!

Why This Recipe Works

This is a classic recipe for dumpling wrappers that everybody needs. We love dumplings in so many ways, boiled, pan-fried, steamed, or in soups. We've been making this dumpling dough recipe for years since our town lacks worth-the-money Asian food! These are why you should be making your dumpling dough also!

3-ingredient recipe - You'll only need all-purpose flour, water, and salt. That's it! No preservatives whatsoever.

Easy and cheap - Making dumpling dough is way easier than you think! Once you've tried this recipe you won't go back to the store-bought dumpling skins, we guarantee that. Don't pay expensive money for something that you can easily make at home, just like our crispy Chinese spring rolls!

Elastic - This recipe will give you dumpling dough that's elastic and extremely easy to work with when you're filling it. It's very forgiving, not stiff, and won't tear as you handle it.

Hot Water vs Cold Water To Make Dumpling Dough

In a Chinese dumpling dough recipe, the water temperature for making dumpling dough depends on how you want to cook the dumplings. Here are the reasons behind it.

Cold or room-temperature water - This is for boiling the dumplings, like our delicious chicken and shrimp dumplings. This dumpling dough is sturdier and more elastic. The dumpling disks are rolled thicker, so they can stand the vigorous boiling water during cooking.

Hot water - This is for pan-fried potstickers or steamed dumplings. The dumpling dough is softer since we are pre-cooking the dough first with hot water, like in our fool-proof potstickers and gyoza wrappers and our colorful dumpling wrappers recipes. This dough is also less elastic. The dumpling discs are rolled thinner, creating softer-textured dumplings for gentler cooking methods like our amazing crispy-bottom pan-fried chicken and shrimp dumplings.

Most people tend to use just one dumpling dough recipe for all of their dumplings regardless if they're boiled, pan-fried, or steamed. We strongly believe that by just taking note of the water temperature and the thickness of the rolled dumpling discs, you will get the maximum experience of enjoying your homemade dumplings!

Ingredients For This Recipe

All-purpose flour- In contrary to our homemade Chinese egg noodles in a stand mixer that uses bread flour, we're just going to use low-protein flour for this dumpling dough recipe. High-protein flour will give that strong chewy texture and be difficult to roll, which we don't want in this recipe. We love just a slight chewiness in our dumplings!

Water - Tap or filtered water, at room temperature.

Salt - Apart from giving flavor to the dumpling dough, it also helps make the dough chewier and sturdier. This prevents the dumplings from breaking apart when we're cooking them.

⭐ See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients - Add the all-purpose flour and salt into a bowl. Mix well with a spoon.

2. Add in water - Slowly add the water bit by bit while mixing everything with a spatula. You'll get a shaggy dough.

3. Knead and rest - Bring the dough together with your hand. Place the dough on a working surface. Knead for 10 minutes or until you get a smooth dough. Place it back in the bowl, cover it tightly with cling film, and rest it for 1 hour.

4. Cut - Place the dough on a working surface. Using your fingers, poke a hole in the center and gently make the hole bigger by squeezing it until you get a 1-inch(2.5cm) thick ring. Cut it into 2 pieces, cut each piece into 4, and finally each piece into 3, to get a total of 24 pieces of dough.

5. Roll - Sprinkle and coat the pieces with some corn starch, and cover them with cling film to prevent them from getting dry. Dust the working surface with some corn starch. Take 1 piece of dough, press it with your hand, and roll it into a 2-inch disc using a rolling pin. Now roll only ⅓ in, rotate the disk, and repeat, creating a thinner edge and a slightly thicker center. This is so that when we pleat the edge together, it'll be the same thickness as the center, and the dumplings will cook properly. That's it! Now you know how to make an easy dumpling dough recipe at home!

Recipe Expert Tips

1. The ratio of water to flour is 1:2. We highly recommend using a kitchen scale to measure flour for this recipe to get the right dough texture. Cup measurement isn't precise as everybody's measuring technique is different. Too stiff or too soft of a dough will make it difficult to pleat later.
2. The longer it sits, the softer it becomes. The dough will get softer after 1 hour of rest, or as it sits in the fridge. We like to limit to 1 hour of rest because the texture is perfect to roll, fill, and pleat. The softer it gets, the more difficult it is to fill and pleat later.
3. Use corn starch. It'll prevent the discs from sticking to one another. Make sure to coat the whole surface of each disc with it. Other starchs like potato, and tapioca work also.
4. Use water to seal the dumplings. When filling them, lightly wet the upper half of the disc before folding, pressing, and pleating it. This will seal and secure the filling inside.
5. Fill them as you go. If using them immediately, roll a few discs, fill them, and repeat. This will prevent the rolled discs from getting too soft, making it difficult to fill them.
6. Don't fill the dumplings and let them sit in the fridge. The dough will start absorbing moisture from the filling making them too soft and start tearing. Instead, fill them and freeze them.

How To Boil Dumplings

This method can be used for fresh or frozen dumplings.

1. Boil the water - Fill a pot with an abundance of water, no need to salt it. Bring it to a boil.
2. Cook - Put the dumplings in. Using a slotted spoon, gently mix them around so they don't stick at the bottom. Boil for 5-8 minutes or until the filling is cooked through. Or by visual, boil until they float to the surface, and continue cooking for 1 minute more.
3. Drain and serve - Using a slotted spoon, drain and remove them from the pot. Place them in a serving bowl and dowse them with our 5-minute garlic chili oil or a mix of 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar, 2 tablespoon water, and ½ tablespoon sesame oil. Sprinkle with some chopped spring onion. Serve hot!

How To Store And Freeze

Fridge - Coat the rolled dumpling discs well with corn starch and stack them. Wrap them in a cling film and put them in an air-tight container, in the fridge for up to 3 days. They will get darker in color, as they sit in the fridge. They get softer as they sit in the fridge but their taste and elasticity will remain the same, so don't worry!

Freeze without filling - Coat the rolled dumpling discs well with corn starch and stack them. Wrap them in a cling film and put them in an air-tight container, in the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw in the fridge. They'll be as if you've just made them fresh!

Freeze with filling - If you love seafood, use our delicious shrimp pot sticker filling. Place them on a tray lined with parchment paper, making sure they don't touch each other. Fast-freeze them for 1-2 hours. Then put them in an air-tight container and back in the freezer! Cook them directly, without thawing.

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Originally published on Jan 31, 2019. Updated with improved text and pictures on Jan 31, 2024.