Homemade Dumpling Skins

Admittedly, this is a lot of work for dumpling skins. But the bite, chew, and texture you get from homemade skins is vastly different from the dried stuff in grocery stores.

Stuff you'll need

• flour (probably all purpose)
• water
• salt

Preparation

Mix the flour, water, and salt together, and knead. I usually do this on a large cutting board. By the end of kneading, 3 things should be clean and glossy: the surface of the dough, the cutting board, and your hands. No more flour, or clammy, sticky dough should be left on any of those surfaces. Make sure the dough is the right texture, it should have a little give, but bounce back eventually. If it's too hard or too soft, you'll need to work in more water or flour. This is even more based on feelings than my other recipes because I might not get the flour and water ratio correct the first try.

Lightly oil the dough on the surface and cover it, to prevent the dough from drying. Let it rest for up to 5 hours. Resting allows the gluten network to form and get stronger in the dough, so that the dough won't break when you start pulling it. At least, I think that's how the science works, don't trust me.

Roll the dough into a long log, and cut it into small segments. Each segment will be flattened and rolled individually into a dumpling skin. When rolling each skin, roll the edges flatter than the center of the skin. Since the dumpling sits on the center, and the edges of the skin are used to crimp and seal the dumpling, the center should be a little thicker so it doesn't break.

Final thoughts

• Yes, the dough is almost exactly the same as hand-pulled noodles. But the dough should be a little firmer, since it doesn't need to be pulled to ridiculous lengths.
• Check out this dumpling filling recipe!