Asian dumpling shortcut: Freeze the filling

[Syzygies]

 

 

I've come up with a dumpling method I haven't seen anywhere, that's drop dead simple for cranking out many future meals: Freeze the filling in mini muffin trays, then press homemade wrappers around the filling as hard as you please.

 

Ever since the Korean grocer H-Mart opened near Columbia, I've been living on their frozen dumpling section. Time to get back to making my own, better control of ingredients and meal balance. These mini muffin trays hold 20ml of filling each. A standard 3.5" circle cutter (mine is from Zabars) just reaches. Then smoosh the dough tight, and freeze.

 

My dough is freshly ground hard red wheat, and boiling water. One could use any dough.

 

Mrs. Anderson’s Baking 43631 24-Cup Mini Muffin Pan, Non-Stick European-Grade Silicone

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

25 minutes ago, Syzygies said:

 

 

I've come up with a dumpling method I haven't seen anywhere, that's drop dead simple for cranking out many future meals: Freeze the filling in mini muffin trays, then press homemade wrappers around the filling as hard as you please.

 

Ever since the Korean grocer H-Mart opened near Columbia, I've been living on their frozen dumpling section. Time to get back to making my own, better control of ingredients and meal balance. These mini muffin trays hold 20ml of filling each. A standard 3.5" circle cutter (mine is from Zabars) just reaches. Then smoosh the dough tight, and freeze.

 

My dough is freshly ground hard red wheat, and boiling water. One could use any dough.

 

Mrs. Anderson’s Baking 43631 24-Cup Mini Muffin Pan, Non-Stick European-Grade Silicone

 

 

Do you cook them from frozen or thaw first?  I'm assuming you cook frozen.  How and for how long?  (Good to see you're alive by the way.)

 

[Syzygies]

37 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Do you cook them from frozen or thaw first?  I'm assuming you cook frozen.  How and for how long?  (Good to see you're alive by the way.)

 

 

I cook frozen. For boiling, I like the Chinese "pour in cups of cold water several times" that replaces a need for a timer. A thermapen confirms that when they all float, they're done.

 

For pan frying, "potsticker" approach as shown, cook as usual. A thermapen again confirms they're cooked through.

[heidih]

Great explanation. I'd forgotten that add cold water method. It used to be on the bag but now so much room is taken up with nutritional info it is usually left off!

Edited October 15, 2018 by heidih (log)

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Syzygies said:

I like the Chinese "pour in cups of cold water several times"

 

Actually, they add rice bowls of cold water. 🙂

 

It works well for jiaozi, but for wontons from frozen, three minutes in boiling water and they are done and floating. I've never seen anyone freezing the filling before before assembly. After assembly, yes. I don't really see that pre-freezing the filling would work for jiaozi.

[MelissaH]

11 hours ago, Syzygies said:

I've come up with a dumpling method I haven't seen anywhere, that's drop dead simple for cranking out many future meals: Freeze the filling in mini muffin trays, then press homemade wrappers around the filling as hard as you please.

 

Ever since the Korean grocer H-Mart opened near Columbia, I've been living on their frozen dumpling section. Time to get back to making my own, better control of ingredients and meal balance. These mini muffin trays hold 20ml of filling each. A standard 3.5" circle cutter (mine is from Zabars) just reaches. Then smoosh the dough tight, and freeze.

 

My dough is freshly ground hard red wheat, and boiling water. One could use any dough.

 

Mrs. Anderson’s Baking 43631 24-Cup Mini Muffin Pan, Non-Stick European-Grade Silicone

 

The local Polish Catholic church does something similar for their pierogi, which they make in great quantities twice a year (just before Lent, and for their festival in early August). I've helped make the pierogi a few times, because I wanted to learn from the best. The afternoon before, the filling gets mixed, and then scooped with a disher into appropriate-sized mounds on a parchment-covered sheet pan. They can get crowded together, but they shouldn't touch. The sheet pans go into the freezer overnight. The next morning, the dough gets mixed, rested, rolled, and cut into circles. A frozen filling mound gets put onto a dough round, which then gets folded over and pinched closed. The finished pierog then gets put onto another parchment-covered sheet pan, this one labeled with the type of filling, not touching any others, and when a sheet pan gets filled, the pierogi go into the freezer till they're frozen solid, at which point they can be packed more compactly until they're needed, if it will be long. A few get cooked (boiled then fried) fresh for that day's lunch for the workers. And then after lunch, it's time to mix up the next day's filling and scoop it into mounds for the following morning.

 

In addition to making it easy to avoid trapping air inside all types, the frozen filling is particularly nice for kraut-filled pierogi. By scooping the filling and freezing it first, you avoid having the tendrils of cabbage splay out and interfere with sealing the edges. The only trick is to work fast enough that the filling mound edges don't start to thaw before the whole pan worth is sealed inside dough. When there are more than a dozen people working together, it isn't usually a problem.

[Syzygies]

1 hour ago, MelissaH said:

In addition to making it easy to avoid trapping air inside all types, the frozen filling is particularly nice for kraut-filled pierogi. By scooping the filling and freezing it first, you avoid having the tendrils of cabbage splay out and interfere with sealing the edges.

 

Yes. I also like how I can work with a wetter dough, and it sticks to the frozen filling as it starts to freeze, itself.

 

I also like how I end up with no flaps. Flaps break off during freezer storage.