Today we’re teaching you guys how to make wonton wrappers! These homemade wonton wrappers are perfectly thin, chewy, and slippery, made with just 3 ingredients: bread flour (AKA high gluten flour), water, and cornstarch.
Just pair with your favorite filling and get ready for an amazing bowl of wonton soup! (Or crab rangoon, cream cheese wontons, or any fried wonton!)
Why Homemade Wonton Wrappers?
Several of our readers have asked for a wonton wrapper recipe over the years, as they don’t have easy access to Chinese ingredients where they live.
The good news is, the only ingredients you need to get at the store are bread flour and cornstarch. (You may already have these on hand!).
The dough is made with flour and water, and then cornstarch is used to keep the dough from sticking.
To get them really thin, a mechanical pasta roller works great, and the result is a professional looking wonton wrapper that makes wontons as beautiful as store-bought ones do!
FAQs
Yes, in a pinch, you can use all purpose! That said, bread flour will give your wonton wrappers a chewier, bouncier texture.
While some wonton wrapper recipes contain egg, we don’t find it to be a necessary ingredient. Many Chinese wonton wrapper recipes don’t use egg at all.
We don’t add salt to our wonton dough. The salt will come from the filling and the soup!
You could work the dough on a lightly floured surface instead of using cornstarch, but the cornstarch will keep the dough from sticking!
There are a couple key differences between wonton wrappers and dumpling wrappers:
– Dumpling wrappers are round, and wonton wrappers are square.
– Wonton wrappers are generally thinner. There is less filling in a wonton than in a dumpling, and the outer wrapper should have a more delicate texture.
You can roll out the wonton wrappers by hand using a rolling pin. A larger rolling pin, like an Italian rolling pin (made for making pasta) is ideal. It will take some elbow grease, but you can do it!
If you’d like your wontons to be more like Chinese Takeout-style ones with very thick wrappers, feel free to make them thicker!
The Importance of Resting the Dough
It’s very important to get the ratio of flour to water right here. You want the dough to be quite firm and even a little dry right after mixing and kneading. If the dough looks perfectly smooth after the initial kneading phase, it’s too wet.
After forming and kneading the dough, you’ll rest it for at least 30 minutes, covered. During that time, you will see your relatively lumpy ball of dough relax, smooth out, and become more pliable.
It will also be at the right level of hydration, making it easy to roll out and form into wontons. If the dough is too wet, it won’t be firm enough to hold its shape.
You’ll need 490g (3½ cups) of bread flour and 237g (1 cup) of tepid water. This amount will make around 2 dozen wrappers.
If you’d like to scale the recipe up or down, simply click on the number of wrappers in the recipe card, and then move the toggle left or right to decrease or increase the recipe to the number of wrappers you’re looking for.
Ok, ready to learn how to make wonton wrappers? Let’s get started.
How to Make Wonton Wrappers: Instructions
Put the bread flour in a large bowl. Add the water to the flour and stir vigorously with a rubber spatula until the mixture looks shaggy. You can also use a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment for this step!
Knead with your hands for about 5 minutes, until the dough is lumpy but relatively cohesive. Place the dough on the counter, and cover with an overturned bowl (the bowl you mixed it in is fine). Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours.
Meanwhile, make your desired filling. Here are some of our favorites:
- Simple Wontons (Pork & Bok Choy)
- San Xian Wontons (Shrimp, Chicken, and Pork)
- Chicken Wontons (Chicken & Napa Cabbage)
- Cream Cheese Wontons
If you’re looking for a crab rangoon recipe, check out our cookbook!
After resting, the dough will be pliable and appear much smoother. Divide dough into quarters. Work with one quarter of dough at a time, and keep the remaining pieces covered with the bowl.
Take your piece of dough and flatten it into a roughly rectangular shape. Then roll it out slightly using a rolling pin, just so it’s thin enough to go into the pasta roller.
You can stretch out the corners of the dough to keep it rectangular before rolling. Dust the dough thoroughly with cornstarch on both sides.
Roll out the dough through the roller, starting at the thickest setting, and gradually rolling it through each successive setting.
When the dough gets very long, you can cut it in half crosswise to make it easier to handle. You’re done rolling when the dough is just short of paper thin. On my Atlas Italian Pasta roller, it was the second to last setting, setting #5. Dust each side of the dough sheet thoroughly with cornstarch again.
Trim the dough with a knife so you have straight edges, and cut into squares about 3½ to 4 inches (9-10 cm) wide. You can use a pizza cutter if you have one, along with a ruler or other straight-edge. That said, I just used a regular knife!
Then assemble the wontons, use water to seal the wrappers, as you would with any wonton wrapper (see our article on how to fold wontons). It’s best to assemble the wontons as you make the wrappers. Then repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
What to do with scraps:
As you’re cutting away scraps of dough to get those straight edges, you may be wondering what to do with them.
You can actually squish these dough scraps back together and put them back under the bowl with the other pieces of dough. This will allow the dough to rest once again, and you’ll eventually be able to take your scrap pile, knead it until relatively smooth, and then roll it out as you did with the other pieces to get a few more wrappers!
Cook the wontons or freeze within 1 hour of assembly, or the moisture in the filling may soak through the very thin wrappers, causing cracks and leakage.
To cook the wontons, drop into boiling water while stirring gently to keep the wontons from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Boil for about 5-6 minutes, adding cold water to the pot every time the water comes back up to a vigorous boil. This gives the filling enough time to cook without overcooking the wrapper.
To freeze the wontons, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, just so they’re not touching. Cover and transfer to the freezer. Freeze overnight until solid, and then transfer to freezer bags to store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Enjoy these delicious wonton wrappers!
VIDEO: Watch Us Make Them
Note: Music for videos included in this post courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com. That Extra Mile – Nocturnal Spirits – Epidemic Sound
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Recipe
How to Make Wonton Wrappers
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour (high gluten flour; can sub AP flour, but bread flour will yield a chewier wrapper)
- 1 cup tepid water
- cornstarch (for dusting)
Instructions
- Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water to the flour and mix vigorously with a rubber spatula until it looks shaggy. Knead with your hands for about 5 minutes, until the dough is lumpy but relatively cohesive. Place the dough on the counter, and cover with an overturned bowl (the bowl you mixed it in is fine). Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours. Meanwhile, make your desired filling.
- After resting, the dough will be pliable and appear much smoother. Divide dough into quarters. Work with one quarter of dough at a time, and keep the remaining pieces covered with the bowl.
- Take your piece of dough and flatten it into a roughly rectangular shape. Then roll it out slightly using a rolling pin, just so it’s thin enough to go into the pasta roller. You can stretch out the corners of the dough to keep it rectangular before rolling. Dust the dough thoroughly with cornstarch on both sides.
- Roll out the dough through the roller, starting at the thickest setting, and gradually rolling it through each successive setting. When the dough gets very long, you can cut it in half crosswise to make it easier to handle. You’re done rolling when the dough is just short of paper thin. On my Atlas Italian Pasta roller, it was the second to last setting, setting #5. Dust each side of the dough sheet thoroughly with cornstarch again.
- Trim the dough with a knife so you have straight edges, and cut into squares about 3½ to 4 inches (9-10 cm) wide. Then assemble the wontons, use water to seal the wrappers, as you would with any wonton wrapper. It’s best to assemble the wontons as you make the wrappers. Then repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
- Cook the wontons or freeze within 1 hour of assembly, or the moisture in the filling may soak through the very thin wrappers, causing cracks and leakage.
- To cook the wontons, drop into boiling water while stirring gently to keep the wontons from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Boil for about 5-6 minutes, adding cold water to the pot every time the water comes back up to a vigorous boil. This gives the filling enough time to cook without overcooking the wrapper. See notes for freezer instructions.
