Wonton wrappers

450g very strong white bread flour
1 1/2 cups water

Start by mixing the bread flour and water into a soft, but not sticky, dough, adding more flour or water if your dough is sticky or dry. The resulting dough should be as soft as the plump bit at the heel of your thumb. Set aside in a covered bowl for the gluten to develop.


There's a reason you used strong bread flour; the gluten in it will give you a very smooth, tough dough, which stretches easily and doesn't break and snap. Looking at your ball of dough, I realise it is hard to imagine that you'll get sixty bits out of it large enough to make into wrappers. Trust me; you will. It's stretchy stuff. Start by dividing it into two, then divide each of those bits into three. The remaining small pieces are easy to chop into ten equal-sized bits.




Roll each piece into a rough circle on a floury board. You don't need to be terribly accurate with these; the tops will be frilly anyway, so don't worry if, like me, you suddenly start acting like someone with fewer than the full complement of fingers when faced with dough and a rolling pin.

When you've rolled your little wrapper, put it on a plate; you can stack the others on top of it and they won't stick together.When all your wrappers are made, put one on the board and place a teaspoon of the mixture (this is quite easy to judge if you make the spoonful about the size of the ball of dough that went to make up one wrapper) in the middle of it.

Moisten a semicircle around the edge of the dough (don't moisten all the way round or it won't stick), and push the two halves of the circle together, crimping the edges as you go.

At this point, you can freeze the little dumplings. Line a container with floured greaseproof paper, put a layer of dumplings in, cover with more floured greaseproof paper, add another layer and so on until the container is full. Defrost before continuing to the next stage.

To cook, heat some vegetable oil in a thick-bottomed, non-stick (there is a reason the Americans call these things pot-stickers) frying pan, and when it is hot, slide the dumplings in carefully in one layer, their bottoms in the sizzling fat and their frilly tops pointing upwards. After about five minutes, pour water into the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the dumplings. Simmer over a medium heat without a cover until all the water has evaporated. The tops will be delicately steamed and the bottoms brown and crisp. Remove with a slotted skimmer.