Steamed Crystal Dumplings – An Easy Gluten-Free Recipe
These gorgeous crystal dumplings are gluten-free, and made with only 3 ingredients. The dumplings are stuffed with delicious garlic brown button mushrooms.
60 mins
Gluten-free
Vegan
Crystal dumplings (also known as 水晶饺子 shuǐjīng jiǎozi) are special gluten-free dumplings found in Chinese restaurants. Dumplings are also made during Lunar New Year as one of the 12 lucky dishes to eat. It is considered lucky because dumplings look like money pouches, and represent wealth, fortune and prosperity. These crystal dumplings turn beautifully translucent when steamed. This recipe is made especially for those who are gluten intolerant but love snacking on delicious dumplings.
The ingredients I’ve used for this recipe are simple, and easily available at any Asian grocery store. However, the technique to make this requires patience. Please read the instructions thoroughly before attempting this recipe to avoid any disappointment.
Crystal Dumplings
Crystal dumplings are gluten-free because it is made with a combination of rice flour, tapioca starch, wheat starch or potato starch. I made this recipe using glutinous rice flour and potato starch because these two ingredients were easily available at my local grocery store. If you would like to replace or substitute the flours, I think wheat-starch would be the best substitute for potato starch. However, there are some questions on whether or not wheat starch is 100% gluten-free.
This dumpling style is used to make the well-known蝦餃 xiājiǎo, traditional Chinese shrimp dumplings. I love the texture of these far more than the all-purpose flour dumplings because it’s lighter and easier to digest.
Dumpling Filling
I’ve made an extremely easy mushroom filling for these dumplings. However, you can add some meat into this if you prefer. My mushroom filling is made using brown button mushrooms, onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Thats it!
Do be cautious when creating this filling because you will need to thoroughly sweat the mushrooms. If you have too much of a watery filling, your dumplings will fall apart. Your filling needs to be thick to hold together.
How To Make Crystal Dumplings
1. You must split mixing the ingredients in stages. If it is all combined at once, there is a high chance the texture wont come out correct. The end result should be soft enough to flawlessly peel your hand from the dough without large cracks, and without your hand getting stuck to the dough.
2. Roll the dough into a long log, about 2 inches wide. This will help you split the dough into equal pieces for the wrapper.
3. Now, cut the dough into 20 equal parts.
4. Roll up each piece into round circles, ready to flatten using a rolling pin. Each of these stages need to be done fairly quickly or else the dough may dry out.
5. Once you’ve rolled the dough out, you can check if it is thin enough by lifting it up and trying to read some black text against the dough. If you cant see the black text behind the dough, it’s not thin enough.
I used a tart ring to cut perfect circles. Yes, I cheated a little, but this saved me so much time.
6. Once you have perfectly round wrappers, you can start placing about 1 tsp of filling in the center of the wrapper.
7. You can then join the bottom tip to the top tip, and gently press it together to hold.
8. Rotate the dumpling 90° and repeat with the other sides.
9. Gently secure the edges by pinching them shut. You can also finish shaping them here.
10. And there you have it! Beautiful crystal dumplings in 10 easy steps!
Steamed Crystal Dumplings – An Easy Gluten-Free Recipe
These gorgeous crystal dumplings are gluten-free, and made with only 3 ingredients. The dumplings are stuffed with delicious garlic brown button mushrooms.
Equipment
- 1 Steamer you can use bamboo or stainless steel
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 tart ring
- 4 medium-sized mixing bowls
- 2 spatulas
- 1 Chopping Board
- 1 Sharp knife
- 1 Frying pan
Ingredients
For The Gluten-Free Dough/Dumpling Wrapper
- 80 g glutinous rice flour
- 80 g potato starch
- 20 g glutinous rice flour this is extra at the end, so keep this separate
- 170 ml boiling hot water
- extra rice flour for dusting the surface while rolling out the wrapper
For The Filling
- 1-2 tbsps sesame oil
- 250 g brown button mushrooms minced
- 1/2 medium-sized onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- pink Himalayan salt to taste
- Crushed black pepper to taste
Instructions
For The Gluten-Free Dough/Dumpling Wrapper
- Add half of the potato starch to the bowl that has the 80g of rice flour, and gently mix it in
- Now, create a well in the center of the flour, and pour in half the water
- Using the spatula, gently combine the ingredients to form a shaggy dough
- Slowly sprinkle the remaining potato starch in the bowl, and mix that in
- Pour the remaining water and mix everything together using the spatula. Using the back of the spatula, break any lumps of flour.
- Pour the remaining 20g of rice flour to the bowl, and knead it in with your hands until it reaches the same consistency as mentioned above.
- Follow the rest of the photo instructions above on how to shape the dumplings.
For The Filling
- In a wide frying pan, add 1 tbsp of pure sesame oil
- Sauté the onions until it turns translucent
- Add the garlic, and stir that in until it is fragrant
- Add the mushrooms and sauté until all the water sweats out of the mushrooms. You need this mixture to be able to hold.
- Once all the water has been evaporated from the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper to your taste and set it aside to cool.
- I placed the mixture in a bowl and placed it in the freezer to speed things up. Leave it in there for 10 minutes to cool down. You must not use hot filling to stuff your dumplings.
- Follow the rest of the photo instructions above on how to fill and wrap the dumplings.
To Cook
- Boil some water in a steaming pot or fill a large stock pot 1/3 of the way with water and bring to a boil with a bamboo steamer inside. Once the water starts to boil, turn the gas down to a low flame, and let the steam fill the pot. Leave this for about 2 minutes before you place your dumplings inside.
- I like to wrap the lid of the pot with a kitchen towel to ensure none of the water from the steam drops onto the dumplings when it's lifted off.
- Place the dumplings in the steamer for 10-15 minutes (you can place a small circular cut out of parchment paper beneath the dumplings when you steam to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the steamer)
- Once it's done, you can open the steamer and transfer the dumplings over to your serving plate. Garnish with my Sichuan Chilli Oil or a chilli oil of your choice!
This recipe was inspired by Mama Cheung Cooks. She created a great recipe for Har Gou. I’ve redesigned this without any oil and added some extra rice flour to ensure a soft, easy to use dough for any beginner. If you love this recipe, or try to recreate it at home, please do tag me or rate this recipe. You can also leave a comment below.
How long do you steam the dumplings?
I didn’t notice any cooking instructions
Dear Rachel, sorry about that! I’ve just updated it. Hope you can see the instructions now!