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a single stack of cornstarch dusted square homemade wonton wrappers

Thin & Chewy Homemade Wonton Wrappers (Using All-Purpose Flour)

If you love paper-thin chewy wontons, potstickers, or even those delicious crispy fried wonton strips in your favorite egg drop soup, you’ll want to make this homemade wonton wrapper recipe. Not only is this recipe easy, but it’s made using just flour, egg, salt, and water. When you see just how easy it is to make homemade wonton wrappers you’ll never again be disappointed when your local grocery store runs out (or just doesn’t carry them). With just a few easy steps, you’ll be filling these chewy, tender wrappers with anything you want. As always, you’ll find step-by-step-recipe photos below. 

Why We Love This Homemade Wonton Wrapper Recipe?

  • Makes deliciously tender and silky wontons 
  • You can make them as thin or as thick as you like
  • The egg in the dough adds richness and flavor
  • No special flour needed (just use regular all-purpose flour)
  • You can use them to make potstickers, fried or boiled wontons, and much more
  • Uses flour, egg, salt, and water (how easy is that?)
  • Easy to make and roll out using a regular rolling pin (no pasta machine needed)

What are Chinese Wontons?

I’m sure most of you have seen the packages of square wonton wrappers for sale in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store, or Asian grocery store. They’re so quick and convenient to use when you’re in the mood for homemade Chinese food. I love these premade wrappers, but like most of you, I’ve been in a situation where the grocery store was out of stock or didn’t sell them at all. Which is a bummer when you’re really craving Chinese food and have no good takeout options. Making homemade wonton wrappers is not only necessary sometimes, but they also taste way really good. 

Wontons are a style of dumpling, that typically uses a square-shaped wrapper to enclose a meat or vegetable filling. Sometimes they include egg (which gives them a slight yellow hue (like in this recipe). They’re steamed, boiled, or fried (think crispy wonton strips in egg drop soup). In the Sichuan province where I lived for 4 years, wontons are often served on top of heaping spoonfuls of spicy wonton sauce, and then gently tossed to coat (see photos below) — this is my absolute favorite way to eat wontons.

Dumplings vs. Wontons — What’s the Difference?

*If you’re looking for a wonton wrapper recipe that uses bread flour, you can find that over here. It’s actually my favorite wonton wrapper recipe, but you can’t go wrong using this all-purpose version. 

How are Wontons different from Dumplings?

There are several key important differences between typical Chinese wontons and dumplings and it’s not just their shape as you can see in the photos (above). The obvious difference is of course the shape. Dumplings are typically formed using round wrappers and wontons using square wrappers.  But there’s a little more to it than that. Here are a few important factors that set these two styles of wrappers apart.

  1. Ingredients. Standard dumpling dough is typically made using just 2 ingredients: flour and water (sometimes a little salt is added). While wonton dough is often made with the addition of eggs.
  2. Thickness & Texture. Dumpling wrappers are usually thicker than wontons and have a little more “chew” to them. Whereas a good wonton (according to my Sichuan family and friends) must be paper-thin. No matter what, a good dumpling or wonton should have a pleasant chew to them.
  3. Shape. Dumplings typically use round wrappers and wontons usually square, rectangular, or triangular wrappers.  Both types of wrappers can be shaped into a multitude of different designs depending on the region, type, or style of the dumpling recipe being used.
  4. Uses. Dumplings and wontons can be used interchangeably in some recipes, like potstickers for instance, but for other recipes like Shanghai Soup Dumplings, dumpling dough is the standard and much easier to use in my opinion. 

Homemade Chinese Wonton Wrapper Ingredients

No need to order takeout because these tasty wontons can be filled with anything you can dream up. Our favorite wonton style is Sichuan spicy wontons which have a feather-light ginger pork filling and are covered in a spicy, delicious lightly sweet and sour sauce containing tahini (or peanut butter or both), toasted sesame seeds, a little crunchy sugar, soy sauce, black Chinese vinegar, homemade Sichuan chili oil, bird’s eye chili, and Sichuan flower pepper oil. That’s a mouthful, I know, but it’s incredibly delicious. And if you want a little crispiness in each bite, use this dough or the traditional dumpling dough to make potstickers.

HOMEMADE WONTON DOUGH

  • all-purpose flour or bread flour
  • eggs
  • kosher salt
  • water 
  • cornstarch for rolling out and dusting

How to Make Homemade Wonton Wrappers from Scratch

If you’re curious about Chinese wontons or live in a place without a well-stocked Asian grocery store or takeout food options, you can still get your wonton fix by making your own. They’re super easy and you only need flour, eggs, salt, and water. Use them to make spicy Sichuan chili oil wontons, potstickers, or even money bag dumplings (beggar’s purses).

  1. Make the wonton dough. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment), add the flour and salt and stir to combine. Add the beaten egg and stir well to incorporate it (it’ll be a shaggy mess at this point). Slowly add the water 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time until the mixture just comes together and you can form it into a ball.
  2. Lightly-Knead the dough & rest it. If kneading the dough by hand, remove the stiff dough round from the mixing bowl and knead it for about 2 minutes, place it back into the bowl, cover it with sustainable cling film, and allow it to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes (this helps the gluten relax and makes it easier to knead by hand. If using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, you can skip letting it rest and begin kneading it right away.
  3. Fully Knead the dough & rest it.  Knead the dough in the mixer using the dough hook attachment on speed 2 for 10 minutes (or by hand for about 12 minutes) until the dough is soft and smooth.
  4. Roll out the wonton wrappers. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Starting with one piece, on a lightly cornstarch-dusted workspace, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Dust it with cornstarch and fold it like a business letter (see step-by-step photos in the main post). Cover it with sustainable cling film while you roll the remaining three pieces of dough repeating the same steps for each. Once all four dough pieces have been rolled, dusted with cornstarch, folded, and covered, allow them to rest for 30 minutes.
  5. Cutting the wonton wrappers. Remove one piece of rested dough onto a lightly dusted workspace and unfold it. Sprinkle it with a little flour and roll it out to 1/8 inch thick (paper-thin) dusting with more flour as you need to keep it from sticking. Using a pizza wheel cutter, or a knife, cut the dough into 3-inch (8cm) squares. Repeat with the remaining dough. Save the scrap pieces to be used as noodles in soup, or fried to make delicious crispy wontons, and Enjoy!

Homemade Chinese Wonton Wrappers step-by-step recipe photos

How To Fill and Seal Homemade Wonton Wrappers

As tempting as it is, do not overfill the wonton wrappers. It’s easy to want to put in “just a little more”, but resist the urge to do it. If you overstuff the wrappers they can tear and split apart when you’re forming them or later on when they’re being cooked.

For homemade wontons, the goal is to get a good dough-to-filling ratio that allows you to easily seal the edges, pressing out any trapped air bubbles inside of the formed triangle (without having the filling seep out). At this point, you may choose to either fold and form the triangles into a traditional Chinese wonton shape, or make flat triangular potstickers instead. If you are making potstickers, you can usually get away with adding a little more filling, but remember a little filling goes a long way.

Looking for a Few Ways to Use Homemade Wonton Wrappers or a Few More Good Dim Sum Dishes?

If you’re looking for a few other dishes to round out your takeout night in, below are a few of our favorites we think you may also enjoy.

 

Let’s get started!

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a single stack of cornstarch dusted square homemade wonton wrappers

How to Make Homemade Chinese Wonton Wrappers


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  • Author: Kelly
  • Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
  • Yield: 60 Wonton Wrappers 1x
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Description

If you love paper-thin chewy wontons, potstickers, or even those delicious crispy fried wonton strips found in your favorite egg drop soup and Asian-inspired salad recipes, you’ll want to make this wonton wrapper recipe. Not only is it super easy, but it also uses the most basic pantry ingredients you probably already have on hand.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour (480g)
  • 3 medium eggs, lightly whisked (135g)
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (6g)
  • 3/4 cup to 1 1/4 cups water (depending on the humidity of flour used) (up to 285g)
  • cornstarch for rolling out and dusting


Instructions

  1. Make the wonton dough. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment), add the flour and salt and stir to combine. Add the beaten egg and stir well to incorporate it (it’ll be a shaggy mess at this point). Slowly add the water 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time until the mixture just comes together and you can form it into a ball.
  2. Lightly-Knead the dough & rest it. If kneading the dough by hand, remove the stiff dough round from the mixing bowl and knead it for about 2 minutes, place it back into the bowl, cover it with sustainable cling film, and allow it to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes (this helps the gluten relax and makes it easier to knead by hand. If using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, you can skip letting it rest and begin kneading it right away.
  3. Fully Knead the dough & rest it.  Knead the dough in the mixer using the dough hook attachment on speed 2 for 10 minutes (or by hand for about 12 minutes) until the dough is soft and smooth.
  4. Roll out the wonton wrappers. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Starting with one piece, on a lightly cornstarch-dusted workspace, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Dust it with cornstarch and fold it like a business letter (see step-by-step photos in the main post). Cover it with sustainable cling film while you roll the remaining three pieces of dough repeating the same steps for each. Once all four dough pieces have been rolled, dusted with cornstarch, folded, and covered, allow them to rest for 30 minutes.
  5. Cutting the wonton wrappers. Remove one piece of rested dough onto a lightly dusted workspace and unfold it. Sprinkle it with a little flour and roll it out to 1/8 inch thick (paper-thin) dusting with more flour as you need to keep it from sticking. Using a pizza wheel cutter, or a knife, cut the dough into 3-inch (8cm) squares. Repeat with the remaining dough. Save the scrap pieces to be used as noodles in soup, or fried to make delicious crispy wontons, and Enjoy!

Notes

  • You may use a pasta machine to roll the wonton dough instead of rolling it manually. Flatten the dough pieces (or roll them with a rolling pin) until it will fit on the widest setting of the pasta machine and roll until desired thinness. On my Atlas Mercato pasta machine, I start with zero and increase to the #5 setting which is the perfect thickness for wontons.
  • I like to use a rolling pin as a guide to help cut the wonton wrappers. Especially if you use a pizza cutter, a rolling pin will help guide you to get straighter lines.
  • If the dough becomes too difficult to roll out, add it to the refrigerator for 20 minutes or more to let it firm up which makes it easier to roll out. You’ll notice in some of my photos, I let the dough get pretty soft, but it’s really forgiving and it turns out great every time.
  • Use more cornstarch for dusting than you probably think you’ll need. Make sure you have plenty of cornstarch on hand to ensure the wrappers don’t stick to each other when stacked. Alternatively, you can work on rolling out one piece of dough at a time, cutting them into squares, filling them, and freezing them right away. Then repeat with the remaining dough. This is a good way to work especially if you don’t have a helper who can fill the dumplings as you roll and cut them.
  • Don’t throw away any of the scrap pieces leftover after cutting the wrappers. Use these strips and pieces to make fried wonton strips or to add to chicken soup. No pieces should be wasted. You can even freeze these pieces raw if you want to fry them up later on. Just place them into a freezer bag. When you want crispy wonton strips, fry them directly from frozen and use them in wonton soup or as a crunchy salad topper.
  • It’s best to use the wrappers straight away, but you can refrigerate them overnight or even freeze them. Just be sure they have plenty of cornstarch in between each wrapper so they don’t stick together.

How To Fill and Seal Homemade Wonton Wrappers

As tempting as it is, do not overfill the wonton wrappers. It’s easy to want to put in “just a little more”, but resist the urge to do it. If you overstuff the wrappers they can tear and split apart when you’re forming them or later on when they’re being cooked.

For homemade wontons, the goal is to get a good dough-to-filling ratio that allows you to easily seal the edges, pressing out any trapped air bubbles inside of the formed triangle (without having the filling seep out). At this point, you may choose to either fold and form the triangles into a traditional Chinese wonton shape, or make flat triangular potstickers instead. If you are making potstickers, you can usually get away with adding a little more filling, but remember a little filling goes a long way.

  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Rest Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Category: Dim Sum
  • Method: Mix & Knead
  • Cuisine: Chinese

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 5 Wontons
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2 Comments

  1. Andromeda LeTourneau

    Can you please make a detailed step by step video on how to make these? Pleeeease?! 😊

    • Hi Andromeda! The next time I make these, I’ll definitely create a video and add it to the recipe and give you a heads up when I do:) Thanks for the suggestion🤗. FYI, you can also use bread flour (which I’ve almost exclusively started using because the dough seems even easier to work with) and you can find that recipe here for comparison: Easy Homemade Wonton Wrappers (Using Bread Flour). Have a great weekend!

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