Nancy Leson surprised me when she said she was using cake flour and plain cold water for her dumpling wrapper dough. I've been using all purpose and just-boiled very hot water.
Nancy got the recipe from Judy Fu of Seattle's Snappy Dragon restaurant fame and wrote about it recently. There's something I like about her method. And something I don't.What I like is that low-gluten cake flour makes for a softer, more easily rolled dough. What I don't like is that cake flour doesn't have as much flavor as AP. Plus, I've never had a hard time rolling the AP, anyway. I'm willing to give it a try, though and will report the results in a blind jao-tse tasting (okay, gorging) at a later date. Meanwhile...
Here's a video from the stellar Andrea Nguyen on how to roll out wrappers. And another from Andrea on how to fill and fold those pleated crescents.
It just takes a little practice. Take a look at the video Nance made with Judy Fu and give it a shot. In fact, why not make a party out of it? Get some friends together, sit around the table and wrap n' roll. Do give it a try and let us know how it all worked out.
"I could eat about a million of those things -- and I probably have."
– Dick Stein on homemade jao-tse
