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"Dumplings are something I grew up folding, sitting at a table in the corner of my parents’ Chinese takeout restaurant."

Though I was probably watching more than folding - they always made me eat the ones I made. Later in life, dumpling parties were a typical occurrence amongst friends, where we would make dumplings of all different shapes, though most of the time not intentionally.

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I haven’t met a single person who universally dislikes all dumplings. Dumplings are so beloved that almost every culture has their own version of a dumpling. We were so intrigued when learning about mantis of Central Asia, pierogies from Russia, Nepali momos, to name a few. Even amongst the usual suspects of East Asia, we found so many different varieties of dumplings - all different shapes, sizes, and fillings. With the variety in mind, we wanted to have some fun with some of the folds we saw in our research.

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Triangle Fold

We referred to this one as the “triangle fold”, though some people would call this the “four corner fold”. This is used in some fried or baked dumpling formats, like crab rangoons, or various filled parcels of Europe. Filled pastas have also used this shape.

For this shape, you just put your filling in the center and pinch the 4 edges into a X.

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Bi-directional

This fold is for the pleated shape I learned growing up. We did bi-directional version of it, where you try to do 4 pleats towards the middle on both sides. You can also try to do 8 pleats all in the same way.

Pleats are all about motion - you fold dough over a finger to make a pleat, then squeeze to seal it.

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Wonton Style

This style is how I learned to make wontons at my parents’ restaurant too, and is really a shove and squeeze.

Easier with a butter knife or palette knife, in which you scrape your filling off the side of a plate into the wrapper. The wrapper rests on top of the index finger and thumb in a C shape, and then you just pinch your thumb and index together to seal.

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Sleeping Dog

I learned this fold from Martin, but it reminds me of some wonton folds as well. The sleeping dog is common for Korean mandu. It also reminds me of tortellini.

For this one, you’ll make half moons, then bring the points together to give you the shape of a sleeping dog curled up.

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Braided

The first time I saw this was through a filled pasta. I was mesmerized by the folding technique, braiding one side after the other, with the end result resembling a leaf.

I later found out that there is a Chinese dumpling with fold as well, called a Willow leaf dumplings (liu ye bao or 柳叶蒸饺).

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Photography credit: Mischelle Moy @studiomisch