Dumpling Dough?

Hi!

I want to make Chinese filled dumplings, but I need some advice for making the dough strong, so that it won't tear during rolling. For example, what kind of flour should I use, should I let it stand, how much time, etc.

Thanks.
David.

Hi David
For once, let's be lazy, pragmatic and efficient : when I intend to make Chinese (or not) dumplings, I buy already made fresh dumpling dough flat squares (for rolls and raviolis) in a food store of the Paris Chinatown : I find them excellent, well made with excellent quality ingredients, easy to use and ... cheap. I find them in packages of 20-25 squares (I am assuming you are considering wheat flour dough : if you want to make spring rolls, you need rice flour doughs, packaged in thin circles). Because they are fresh and without any preservative, you need to keep thezm in the fridge and to use them asap.
Where are you located ? In case you are far from a Chinese food shop, tell me and please also tell what kind of stuffing we want to fill the dumplings with and how you want to cook them (deep fried, panned, steamed, baked ?) and I will give you a recipe for the dough.
For better convenience, rather drop your messages into the English part of this site (click on the English flag, at the righ top corner of the front page.

Where are you located?
I live in a small town about an hour to the West of Jerusalem. I don't believe that anyone sells ready-made wrappers here, and even if they did, I probably couldn't eat them for religious reasons.

tell what kind of stuffing we want to fill the dumplings with and how you want to cook them (deep fried, panned, steamed, baked ?)
Filled with ground chicken and then simmered in soup.

For better convenience, rather drop your messages into the English part of this site
I am writing them on the English side, though I guess that you're seeing them on the French side.

Thanks again.
David.

Hi again David
You are right : I've seen your messages on the French side, which is strange actually but no worries (I will ask our webmaster why).
I do not know how many people you want to feed with your rolls so please adapt the proportions accordingly to your need.
First sieve together 1 pinch of table salt with 230 grams of ordinary wheat flour (I do not know if the French classification of flour purity are relevant in Israël but if so use T45 flour) in a large salad bowl. Make a hole in the middle and pour into it one full egg (yolk + white already beaten with a fork, add 1.2 deciliter of water and blend with a wooden spoon (Chinez method !) by gradually incorporating the flour into the liquid ingredients from the outside to the center. When you get an uniform and smooth mixture, put it down on a worktop on which you have first spread some corn starch powder (Maïzena in France) to avoid sticking and continue well blending the pasta with energy with your hand during 10 minutes by making a ball of it, pulling it up and throwing it with some energy on the table, crushing it with the palm of your hand and again and again until the pasta is quite glossy and no longer stick on the worktop (often put, on the worktop and on your hand a little flour). Then make a ball with the pasta, put it in the bowl, cover with an humid cloth and let it stand into the fridge (not too cold) during at least 30 minutes.
Then reshape the pasta as a 30 centimeter long cylinder and cut 5 centimeters thick round slices (each of them will become a dumpling. Sprinkle a little corn starch on each of the slices (one by one), flatten them with the hand and then make them very thin with a rolling pin. Cut the hedges the shape you need (squares, rectangles - normally 15 centimeter squares), sprinkla gain a little stark before stacking them up. Cover the whole with an humid cloth while you prepare your stuffing. That's it. Bon appétit (please give some feedback to us).
Stéphane

Hi David,
If you want to get a flour similar to the french T45 use plain flour. But personally I would use strong flour for better result as it contains more gluten it will make your dough stronger.
There is a very simple Chinese dumplings dough recipe:
500g white rice flour,
1 cup of boiling water (you may not need all of it)
7g of salt

Mix the salt to the flour. Stir the boiling, little by little the boiling water into the flour until it forms a soft dough.
Allow to rest for 1 hour.
When making your stuffed dumplings, brush your rolled down dough with a little of water with a bit of rice flour mixed in before closing them.

Hi again David
For clarification, Type 45 flour is the purest one and plain flour (so the less pure) is at the opposite range (Type 110 ore over); the difference between flour types is the percentage of "ashes", i.e. other parts of the wheat grain itself, including mineral parts) so for a given quantity of flour, Type 45 is the one with the highest percentage of gluten because gluten is exclusively in the grain itself.
Rice flour does not contain any gluten : this is why it is advisable to persons suffering from the coeliac disease.

The dumplings I refer to are the edible ones !! Mei is from Anshan and what ever flour we buy she is not happy, I notice all dumplings for sale frozen are white, yet the only flour I can find is rice flour, she says NO.any brand name would be good,

I have recently returned to UK after many years in France. I find UK bread of all sorts disgusting, simply turning to powder in your mouth. So whenever I return to France I bring back a supply of bread and keep it in the freezer for consumption.
Why is French bread so much better, and where can I find it in the UK?