Name: Wrappers for Sweet Rice Flour Dumpling {Tang Yuan 汤圆}
Prep time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 454 g water-milled sweet rice flour, 1 lb Shui Mo Fen {水磨粉}; 380 g water, room temperature, previously boiled or filled; 1 cup of water for keeping the hands damp

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Wrappers for sweet rice flour dumplings, or Tang Yuan 汤圆 in Chinese, are from water-milled sweet rice flour. They are extra soft, smoother, and have just the right amount of chewiness.

Sweet rice flour dumplings are traditional Huai Yang food. We can make a savory version using pork filling. Or, we can make a sweet version using sweet red bean paste fillings.

Pork Sweet Rice Flour Dumplings {Rou Tang Yuan 肉汤圆} — Savory Pork Sweet Rice Flour Dumplings

Red Bean Sweet Rice Flour Dumplings — Savory Pork Sweet Rice Flour Dumplings

What ingredients do you need to make wrappers for sweet rice flour dumplings?

Simple ingredients of water milled sweet rice flour and water.

Sweet rice flour is naturally delicious. When people mill the sweet rice submerged in the water, that creates extra soft and smoother sweet rice flour called water milled sweet rice flour, or Shuo Mo Fen 水磨粉 in Chinese.

Water milled sweet rice flour is very popular in China’s Yangtze River Delta area to make all kinds of desserts and pastries. It is the secret ingredient behind the super-soft mochi in the classic Huai Yang style “Red Bean Mochi Soup ( Hong Dou Xiao Yuan Zi 红豆小圆子”.

red bean mochi soup — Red Bean Sweet Rice Flour Minis {Hong Dou Xiao Yuan Zi 红豆小圆子}

How to Make Sweet Rice Flour Wrappers for Dumplings?

The first is the ratio between the flour and water

The dough should be very soft but must have a certain stiffness and be pliable so we can shape them like pottery. Here, we’d like to shape each sweet rice ball into a small bowl shape.

Because of its delicate nature, I use the metric systems gram as a unit for the precision purpose. The rule of thumb is that the ratio between the water and flour is 1:1.2 as a starting point. 20% extra flour compared to water as weight.

Surely other factors play important roles too. For instance, the various brands of flour, the humidity level in the air, etc. I am making this in Chicago’s winter, which is very dry. If you are in a humid area, you may need slightly less water.

It is the reason I recommend adding the last 20% water called in the recipe slowly so you have room to address these factors.

Tip No.2 is to use room temperature water for making Sweet Rice Flour Dough

The Sweet Rice Flour Dumplings or Tang Yuan {汤圆} will taste softer and smoother.

Tip No.3 is to keep hands damp while handling the sweet rice flour dough

Keeping hands damp is essential in order to shape the sweet rice dough relatively easier. Frequently dip your fingers into the water, rub your two hands together during the wrapping process.

Wrappers for Sweet Rice Flour Dumpling {Tang Yuan 汤圆}

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour

Sweet rice flour dumplings, or Tang Yuan {汤圆} or Yuan Xiao {元宵} in Chinese, are one of the Huai Yang classics, featuring water-milled sweet rice flour which is extra soft and smooth, just the right amount of chewiness, and naturally delicious. They are great for either sweet fillings such as red bean paste or savory fillings such as pork.

Ingredients

454 g water-milled sweet rice flour, 1 lb Shui Mo Fen {水磨粉}
380 g water, room temperature, previously boiled or filled
1 cup of water for keeping the hands damp

Instructions

Measure out water-milled sweet rice flour and water respectively.
Add water-milled sweet rice flour into a mixing bowl, make a well in the middle, and gradually add water while mixing and kneading, go extra slow adding water when there is about 20% water left, until form a soft dough. The dough shall be very soft and a little sticky in the beginning. As you keep kneading, it becomes smoother.
Divide the dough into 4 or 5 equal portions, and press each portion using two hands, and roll into a cylinder. Cover the rest of the cylinders with a food film to prevent them from getting dried out while you are working through making wrappers.
Snip regular meatball-sized dough chunks off the dough cylinder. Each portion should weigh around 40 g. For each chunk, use two hands to roll into a ball
If the dough appears to be a little dry, dip your fingers into the water and gently rub between your palms to wet the fingers and palm areas.
While your left hand hold the sweet rice flour ball, use your right-hand thumb to press & poke in the middle of the sweet rice ball, while the rest of your right-hand fingers lean against the exterior wall of the sweet rice ball
Your right-hand thumb and other four fingers continue to press against each other, with the wall of the sweet rice ball wall in the middle, and rotating the sweet rice ball clockwise at the same time.
Dip your fingers into the water to wet the fingers if the dough appears to be dry. Keep pressing while rotating, our goal is to make a bowl shape sweet rice flour wrapper.
Gradually move your right-hand thumb up to the edge while pressing & rotating, press the edge a bit more to make sure you have a thinner edge which helps the wrapping and taste.
Hooray! You have made a sweet rice flour dumpling wrapper. Now let's wrap some sweet rice flour pork dumplings.
Keep wrapping the Sweet Rice Flour Dumplings. See a detailed tutorial here.

Notes

The dough should be very soft but have a certain stiffness and be pliable so we can shape them like pottery. Here, we'd like to shape each sweet rice ball into a small bowl shape.

Frequently dipping fingers into the water to wet the hands is the key to shaping the sweet rice correctly.
For sweet rice flour dumplings, we make the wrapper and wrap the dumpling in one contiguous series of actions. Make sure you check out "How to Wrap Sweet Rice Flour dumplings".
This recipe makes about 20 Sweet Rice Flour Dumpling Wrappers.