Taiwanese Dumpling Cooking Class
Let's play with flour!
We will practice how to roll the dough, and making it into thin dumpling wrappers. Then we will practice the delicate art of filling the wrappers with just the right amount of shiitake mushroom, pumpkin and cilantro (coriander leaves) and sealing them up. After that, it takes just minutes to cook steamed dumplings in a traditional bamboo steamer. And we will also use a pan to fry up some delicious pot stickers (guo tie).
We will make one of the most commonly seen street foods, pockets. We will fill the pocket with pumpkin, corriander and mushrooms. The pocket is similar to a smaller vision of Italian Cazona pizza. You can try filling them with whatever your creativity can dream up.
And we are going to use the same dough to make the most popular Taiwanese and Chinese snack, green onion pancake. It looks simple, but there's an art to giving the dough the correct light and airy texture by a combination of rolling and folding – it's a little like making croissant dough. Green onion pancake is a quick, filling snack that you can easily eat with your fingers, so will often see it sold at street stands and in every night market in Taiwan - both the thick style that we learn here, and the slightly different thin style. It's also a very popular order in northern Chinese dumpling restaurants.
For a sweet conclusion to the class, we will use black sugar and sesame to make a really tasty and healthy dessert with the same dough: black sugar and sesame pancake. This is also something you simply have to try when you visit a dumpling restaurant.
Dumpling Class details
Making dumpling dough
Dumpling dipping sauce
Chives and waterchest nuts dumplings
Pumpkin and mushroom pockets
Green Onion Pancake
Black Sugar and Sesame Pancake
Dumpling culture
Dumplings are a common Asian dish that's equally popular with people from both East and West. 
There are many different kinds of dumpling. In this class we will make dumplings using wheat flour of the same kind used in Western baking. We will also make another popular dish that's based on similar basic ingredients, Green Onion Pancake. Both of these are originally Northern Chinese dishes, which are also made by many people in Taiwan.
We keep things simple by using a basic vegetarian filling, but once you learn how to make and cook dumplings, it's very easy for you to modify the filling to use your own favorite ingredients and flavors. Other common dumpling fillings include pork, shrimp, mushrooms, glass noodles, and for sweet dumplings, sweet red bean and black sesame.
Know your dough
Asian people use bamboo steamers to cook dumplings, and Western people use an oven to cook bread. But there's actually a lot of similarity between the dough used for both of these popular foods, so these kinds of dumplings are very easy for Western people to learn.
You can choose to use your own preferred ingredients and season them with some basic Chinese flavors. Instead of cooking the bread in the oven, you cook the dumplings in the bamboo steamer, but they will be as easy to make as bread.
While it's common to cook dumplings in a bamboo steamer, pan frying them in a frying pan or wok is also a very fast way of making them. This way it's possible to serve more than 10 to 20 people at a time.
Class Information
Language: English (Chinese or Taiwanese if required)
Cost: Our price for this standard one day (about 4 hours) class is NT$4,000 for one student (about HK$1100, US$130 or 95 Euros), NT$7,000 for two students (about HK$1900), NT$10,000 for three students, and NT$12,000 for four students. Sorry, but we do not offer discounts for these classes.
Normal class size: 1 - 4 students (larger classes may be possible). Always let us know exactly how many people will be coming with you. Private classes may be available on request, for an additional charge.
Children: Before you book, please let us know if you are bringing children and their approximate ages. Usually we will require you to book a private class if you bring young children, as they may affect other guests' enjoyment of the class.
Time: Classes usually start at 10am or 2pm and last about four hours. Please always contact us well in advance to make a reservation. We will try to arrange the classes to fit your schedule.
Note: These details apply to the standard class which you can see on this page. Some custom designed classes or classes with more expensive ingredients may cost more or last longer.
Credit Cards: We can only accept Credit Card payments online, not on the day of the class. Please contact us for details. Payment processing companies will impose additional fees on transactions.
Booking Deposit: For some classes and certain busier periods, we require an advance booking deposit of NT$1,500 per person for each class booked, paid by Credit Card or Paypal. In some cases we can accept your booking without an advance deposit.
Other Payment Methods: Please contact us for details.
Cancellation/changes/refunds: If you need to cancel your class more than 7 days before the date you have booked, we will refund your deposit minus a 10% charge to cover our handling costs and charges imposed by Credit Card/Paypal. For late cancellation and changes (less than 7 days before start of class), we charge NT$1,500 per person for each class booked, and refund the remainder of your advance payment or deposit. This is to cover the cost of lost business, ingredients, and preparation. This charge applies for class cancellation, time or date changes, and reductions in the number of guests. Aside from this, we humbly implore you not to book a class unless you are certain you can attend on time, because late cancellations, no shows and very late arrivals are costly for us, and they inconvenience other guests or deny them their only chance to attend a class.
Telephone: (02) 2720-0053
Address: 2F, 29-1 Zi Yun St, Taipei, Taiwan 台北市信義區110紫雲街29-1號2樓
Website: kitchen.j321.com
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