Basic Hot Water Dough (烫面团) for Dumplings and More

Hot Water Dough, aka scalded dough, is used in China to make light and tender dumpling wrappers. However, this versatile method of making dough can also be used to make dumpling skins, paratha, matzo, and a variety of stuffed flatbreads. Amazing how a mixture of flour, water, and salt can lead to so many diverse and delicious things!

Uses for Hot Water Dough

In Chinese cuisine, hot water dough is known as tang miantuan (烫面团), and is commonly used for steamed and pan-fried dumplings because of its tender, delicate texture. Whereas cold water dough, aka leng miantuan (冷面团) is preferred for boiled dumplings and wontons because it’s sturdier and holds up better in boiling water.

Besides Chinese dumplings (jiaozi), you can use hot water dough to make:

• All kinds of other stuffed dumplings, like Afghan ashak, Korean mandu, Japanese gyōza, Mongolian buuz, Polish uszka, Russian pelmeni, Central Asian manti, Eastern European pierogi or varenyky, Middle Eastern shish barak, and South Asian momo
• Bolani, a stuffed Afghan bread, resembling a turnover, with fillings like potato, pumpkin, and herbs
• Flammkuchen, a pizza-like open flatbread with toppings, invented in Alsace, France
• Flour tortilla, the thin and flexible Mexican flatbread used for burritos, tacos, quesadillas, and more
• Gözleme, a Turkish specialty similar to bolani, with different fillings such as spinach, cheese, and meat
• Laobing, chaobing, and shaobing, three varieties of Chinese pancakes that are either pan-fried or baked, and come with or without stuffing, often scattered with sesame seeds
  • Scallion pancakes (cong you bing)
  • Red bean pancakes (hongdou bing)
  • Brown sugar pancakes (hongtang shaobing)
• Markook shrak, a large, paper-thin flatbread eaten throughout the Middle Yeast
• Matzo, a baked Jewish flatbread traditionally consumed during Passover, can be made either soft or crispy
• Paratha, a crispy laminated bread with layers and layers of oily dough, can be made plain or with a variety of fillings; similar to the Southeast Asian roti canai
• Piadina, a thin Italian skillet flatbread usually folded over toppings, a bit like a pita
• Podpłomyki, an ancient Slavic bread, traditionally cooked on stones over a bonfire, nowadays baked in the oven and eaten with jam
• Qistibi, a potato-filled turnover similar to bolani and gözleme, popular in the Volga region of Russia
• Roti canai, an ultra-flaky laminated flatbread from Southeast Asia, similar to paratha, usually dipped in curry
• Saj, similar to markook but cooked on a hot round griddle
• Shumai, a dim sum favourite, originally from China but popular in many other Asian countries; basically a flower-shaped type of steamed dumpling
• Torta de gazpacho, a Spanish flatbread with roots in ancient Iberia, traditionally served smothered in a hot stew

I will be releasing recipes for these and more later on throughout this blog.

The Science of Scalded Flour

Scalding flour has two major effects on the dough:

• Breaks down and inhibits gluten formation: Hot water damages and partially denatures proteins such as gluten and gliadin in the flour. Because these damaged proteins cannot effectively form gluten networks, this reduces the strength of the dough. The resulting dough still has a bit of stretch, because there is still a small amount of gluten development, but it’s definitely not as chewy and elastic as a dough made with room temperature water. If you’ve ever tried rolling out dough only to have it shrink again when you let go, that’s because it has a tight, strong gluten network. This hot water dough will solve that problem. It’s much easier to roll your dough super thin if you make it with hot water.
• Gelatinizes starch: Besides protein, flour also contains lots of starch. Adding hot water turns that dry starch into a thick, gel-like substance that can absorb much more water than non-scalded starch. (It’s the same idea behind thickening a sauce with roux or cornstarch.) Gelatinized starch contributes to a softer, less stretchy dough. Also, some of the starch, which is made up of complex carbs, gets transformed into simple sugars as it gets cooked by the boiling water. The result is that scalded flour has a sweeter taste than non-scalded flour.

Hot Water Dough vs Tangzhong, Yudane, and Scalded Rye

The principle behind scalded flour in this hot water dough recipe shares similarities with:

• Tangzhong from China
• Yudane from Japan
• Skålla from Sweden

Similar methods are used in other Baltic and Scandinavian countries as well (mostly with rye flour).

However, these techniques are used for bread-baking. They involve scalding only a portion of the total flour in the recipe (usually between 5–30%). You see, adding scalded dough in small amounts can improve the texture, flavour, and shelf life of bread, but if we were to make a bread with 100% scalded flour, it would turn out quite flat and gummy. The gluten and other proteins in the bread would be too damaged to hold up the structure of the bread.

By contrast, hot water dough is used for making things other than yeasted bread, such as unleavened flatbreads (tortilla, bolani, roti, paratha) and dough wrappers (dumplings, perogies, manti). For these foods, the structure of the dough is flat and the texture is tender, but not very elastic. The major difference is that the entirety of the flour in the recipe is scalded.

What You’ll Need

The requirements for making hot water dough are super simple. There are only three to four ingredients:

Start with Flour

Flour is obviously a must. Since the point of hot water dough is that you don’t want too much gluten development, all purpose flour works best.

• Pastry flour and cake flour, which contain lower protein than all purpose, are good choices for this recipe too.
• Bread flour contains higher gluten content, making for a more elastic dough, which kind of defeats the purpose of making this recipe with hot water. Not recommended.
• I have only used wheat flour in testing this recipe. I don’t know how gluten-free flours would behave since the magic of hot water dough depends on changing the interactions between the gluten and gliadin proteins found in wheat flour, as well as the specific properties of gelatinized wheat starch; other starches may behave unexpectedly. But you’re welcome to try with a gluten-free flour and let me know how it goes.

The Role of Salt

Salt is added to improve the flavour of the dough. When you’re eating a dumpling, you may be more interested in the filling than in the wrapper, but the wrapper is important too! Same with a tortilla or a flatbread: you may think it’s just a vehicle for delivering the toppings to your mouth, but the bread itself adds flavour too. I gave my dad a blind taste test of tortillas made with salted vs unsalted hot water dough, and he said the salted one tasted much better.

Advantages of Hot Water

Hot water is the key to this recipe; after all, it’s in the name. I already discussed the science behind using hot water above, but it boils down (ha pun intended) to two advantages:

1. A dough that’s easier to roll: Ever had the problem of dough bouncing back as you try to roll it out thin? That’s because the proteins in the flour have arranged themselves into a strong network with high elasticity. Great for springy bread dough, not so good for paper-thin dumpling skins or highly-laminated roti canai. Using hot water inhibits the formation of this elastic gluten network, creating a pliant, malleable dough that’s less frustrating to work with.
2. A finished product with more tender texture: Whether you’re making perogies or scallion pancakes, you don’t want to end up with excessive chewiness. Unlike bread, which is all about the chew, you don’t want to be gnashing on a leathery paratha or squishing your burrito filling out the bottom as you wrestle with a particularly resilient tortilla. Again, hot water dough has lower elasticity than a regular dough, making the end result light and tender.

Oil Is Optional

Whether you add oil or not depends on what you want to make with your dough.

• For example, dumpling skins are made without any oil. On the other hand, perogy wrappers do contain oil.
• Some flatbreads, like tortilla, piadina, and roti canai, have oil kneaded in with the dough.
• Others, like markouk, matzo, and torta de gazpacho are made with lean doughs, ie. they don’t use any oil at all.
• Still others, like scallion pancake and paratha, contain no fat in the dough itself, but are laminated with plenty of oil to create flaky layers.

I include instructions for making this recipe with or without the oil (“enriched” vs “lean” versions). Basically, if you are adding oil, mix it together briefly with the flour and water first, then add the hot water. Besides that extra step, everything else is the same.

Step-by-Step Process

Step 1: First, bring some water to a boil in a kettle. Meanwhile, pour flour into your mixing bowl.

Step 2: Add salt to the flour. Turn the mixer on to the dough-mixing setting (this is Speed 2 on the KitchenAid).

Step 3 (optional): If using oil, pour that in too at this point. Let it get roughly incorporated into the flour.

Step 4: Measure out 3/4 cup of the boiling hot water. Carefully pour it into the flour mixture while continuing to run the mixer.

Tip: Be fairly quick with pouring in the water (but make sure to be careful not to splash it back on yourself). We want to coat all of the flour in hot water before it cools down.

Step 5: Once all the water is added, continue mixing for a minute or two, bringing all ingredients together into a shaggy ball. The dough should be cool enough to touch after a couple of minutes. Knead dough for a few minutes, until it’s a tacky, somewhat smooth ball. This should take no more than five minutes either by hand or in the stand mixer.

Step 6: Now cover the dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes, for the dough to relax. This ensures that the dough is super soft and pliable when we handle it. You’re ready to proceed to whatever recipe you intend to use your hot water dough for!

Note: You do not need the surface to look satiny-smooth, like you would for bread dough. As long as it’s uniform, and there are no un-incorporated streaks of flour, you’re fine.

Make Ahead & Storage Tips

Hot water dough can be made up to a week ahead of time. Cover it with cling film (it won’t expand, so wrap it up tightly) and store in the fridge. I like to make double or triple batches of the stuff so that I can take pieces from it throughout the week to roll out on demand. Who doesn’t love a midweek scallion pancake fresh off the griddle?

This dough can also be frozen, but it will be sticky and more difficult to work with once defrosted. Dust with more flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Dough Variations

Here are a few ways you can change up the basic recipe:

• Use whole wheat flour: You can substitute whole wheat flour or durum atta flour in place of the all purpose flour. This type of whole wheat dough is ideal for South Asian chapati (aka roti) and poli (aka holidge). It’s also great for making whole wheat tortillas.
• Add spices or herbs: If you want to go a bit further than plain salt in your dough, try adding some spices or herbs for a different flavour. For example, I learned from my mom to add a small amount of ground fennel to my scallion pancakes which really complements their flavour. Now, instead of smearing it onto the pancake during lamination, I simply add the fennel powder while I’m kneading up the dough.
• Use blended up vegetables instead of water: Blend up a small amount of colourful veg (spinach, red bell pepper, carrot, and purple cabbage are all good choices) with water. Bring the mixture to a boil in a saucepan, then measure out the appropriate amount and add it to your flour and salt. This adds colour and a bit of veggie flavour to your dough.

If you made this recipe with a flavour variation, please leave a comment. I would love to hear about it!