If I could take away anything from being at home so much, it would be realizing the strength of my food cravings. My appetite is never stable so when I want to eat something, I would make it happen. And this time it happened to be these delicious soup dumplings.
After mindless scrolling down the Youtube rabbit hole, I came across this old Bon Appetit video with my spirit animal, Claire Saffitz. Anyone can find this at Din Tai Fung or any dim sum place. But a halal one is rare since the essence of Xiao Long Bao is pork. Besides the pork, I had to make some substitutions with the rice wine too. It’s easy to make. The tough part is the dumpling folding which you will get better by the time your 24th or 25th dumpling.
Ingredients (yields 48 dumplings)
Dumpling Soup
- 250ml / 1 cup Water
- 1 Knorr Chicken Stock Cube
- 1 tsp Unflavoured Gelatin Powder
Dumpling Filling
- 700g Minced Chicken
- 3 Spring Onions or Scallions, finely chopped
- 1 Garlic clove, grated
- 1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1 ¾ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 ¼ tsp Sugar
- 1 ¼ tsp Sesame Oil
- ¾ tsp Ground White Pepper
- 2 inches / 5cm Ginger, grated
Dumpling Skin/Wrapper
- 384g / 3 cups All-Purpose Flour, extra for dusting the surface
- 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 250ml / 1 cup Hot Water
Get your prep work done!
- Dissolve the chicken stock cube in water over low-medium heat. When it starts boiling, sprinkle the gelatin and stir. Immediately, pour the chicken stock into a long 20 cm by 30 cm Pyrex dish. Set aside to cool down to room temperature before resting in the refrigerator.
- In a large mixing bowl with all-purpose flour, carefully drizzle in the hot water and mix. The dough will be shaggy but it’s okay if it’s slightly dry. Let it rest for 20 minutes while being covered with cling wrap. This will allow the dough to hydrate.
- Mix the vegetable oil into the dough until it comes together. You can see the dough with all the sides of the bowl will stick together to form a ball. Transfer this dough onto a floured surface.
- Start working the dough by kneading and folding into itself. Knead for at least 10 minutes while adding bits of flour when needed until the dough is smooth yet tacky. Dust the dough with some flour and wrap it in cling wrap from before. Let it rest for 1 hour.
- While your dough is resting, mix the minced chicken, spring onions, garlic, light soy sauce, salt, apple cider vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, white pepper, and ginger in a bowl. Continue mixing the dumpling filling until you see film forming on the sides of the bowl. Set aside to rest.
- Remove your cooled and gelatinous chicken stock from the refrigerator. Cut across the dish to form little cubes of chicken stock jelly. Add half of the chicken stock into the bowl of dumpling filling and lightly mix. Reserve the other half of chicken stock when forming the dumplings.
- Prepare your steamer basket by lining with parchment paper or some large cabbage leaves. If you’re using cabbage leaves, be sure to lightly grease them to prevent any sticking to the soup dumplings.
Time to assemble those soup dumplings!
- After an hour of rest, you’re ready to make those dumpling wrappers and start forming your soup dumplings! Start by dividing your dough ball into 4 equal parts and working with each part at a time. Be sure to keep those parts you’re not working with under plastic to prevent any drying out.
- Using your hands, roll out a part of the dough till you get a long rope that is about 30 cm or 12 inches long. Place alongside a ruler, divide the rope into 12 smaller pieces with each piece being 2.5cm or 1 inch long. This would make sure you get 12 even pieces. Remember to cover those parts you’re not working with!
- Now, with each small piece of dough, press down with your thumb on the cut side before rolling out the sides with a rolling pin. Rotate your little circle every 90 degrees with one hand as you continue to roll out the sides with your other hand. Each dumpling wrapper should be at least 10 cm or 4 inches in diameter.
- While placing your dumpling wrapper on your palm, scoop 1 tbsp of dumpling filling onto the wrapper. You can more chicken stock jelly that’s been reserved if you want. Be sure to leave a 1 cm or ½ inch border for folding.
- Dip your fingers in water and wet the sides of the wrapper. Start folding the sides by pulling and stretching the dough. You will create neat pleats before sealing the top. (Honestly, watch the video from BA to see the folding technique. It’s hard to explain otherwise.) When you’re done, place it into the steamer basket and continue for 47 more times. It sounds tedious but it’ll be worth it!
Cooking your soup dumplings
- When ready to cook, place the steamer basket over a pot of boiling water under low-medium heat. Let it steam for 10 minutes. And you’re ready to enjoy your hard work!
Original recipe from Bon Appetit
Inshirah Majid 