Directions

Make the broth jelly

1. Add the pork skin and bones to a big stock pot, fill it with water, and then bring it to a boil. Souped Up Swap: If you don’t eat pork, replace the pork skin with 227g / 0.5 pound chicken feet; switch the pork bones with 454g / 1 pound chicken bones.
   
2. Discard the blanching water and rinse the pork skin and bones under running water to wash off the foamy scum.
   
3. Use a chef's knife to scrub any attached fat from the pork skin and then cut the skin into thin strips because smaller pieces encourage gelatin dissolution.
   
4. Fill another pot with 5 cups water and add the pork skin strips, bones, ginger slices, scallions, and Jinhua ham and bring to a boil.
   
5. Simmer the soup over the lowest heat for 3 hours or until the broth becomes milky and creamy.
   
6. Pour the soup through a sieve into a measuring cup. If you have more than 1 ¾ cup (about 420g), reduce it on the stove. If you don't have enough, add some water.
   
7. Chill the broth in the fridge for at least 6 hours or until it is coagulated. Finely mince the broth jelly and set it in the fridge. Please do the mincing fast because the jelly will turn soft and melt if your room temperature is too hot.
   
8. Short Cut: Here is an easy method to make the broth jelly, which only takes 10 minutes. Add 4.5 tsps gelatin powder, ¼ tsp salt, and 2 cups store-bought stock to a saucepan. To make up for the lack of taste, I recommend using a good quality stock. Simmer the soup until the liquid reduces to 1¾ cup. Chill it in the fridge until it settles. However, pure gelatin powder doesn't give the soup that rich, sticky, velvety texture, so it is your choice to evaluate the up and downsides.
   

Make the wrapper dough

1. Add the salt to the water and stir to dissolve. Add the bread flour to a stand mixer’s bowl. Pour the salt solution into the bread flour and stir until all the water is well absorbed.
   
2. Use the hook attachment and let the stand mixer run on medium speed to knead the dough for 10 minutes. If you don’t have one, you can knead the dough by hand for 12 minutes or until smooth. If the dough feels tight and stubborn, you can cover and rest it for 15 minutes and then knead it again. It should become elastic shortly.
   
3. If you don’t have one, you can knead the dough by hand for 12 minutes or until smooth. If the dough feels tight and stubborn, you can cover and rest it for 15 minutes and then knead it again. It should become elastic shortly.
   
4. Shape the dough into a log, cover it, and let it rest for at least 1 hour or longer. Chef’s Secret: It is necessary to give the starches and gluten enough time to expand and fully absorb the water so the dough becomes stretchy. Otherwise, the wrapper will have a higher chance of breaking and the dumpling will leak.
   

Make the filling

1. Add the minced scallions, garlic, ginger, white pepper, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and roasted sesame seeds to a heat-proof bowl. I recommend lightly pounding the sesame seeds using a rolling pin to release the nutty flavor before adding to the bowl.

   
2. Heat 2.5 Tbsps vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat until it is smoking hot and pour it onto the aromatics to activate the flavor. Mix well.
   
3. Add the aromatic mixture, salt, sugar, and soy sauce to the ground pork and mix thoroughly.
   
4. Pour ¼ cup water into the pork mixture in batches and stir the meat with a circular motion in one direction to develop the texture. Add a little bit more and continue to stir until all the water is well absorbed.
   
5. Combine the meat mixture with the minced jelly and mix for 3 minutes until well combined. Cover it and set it in the fridge.
   

Wrap the dumplings

1. Once the dough has been rested for 1 hour, roll it into a long even strip. Divide the strip into 32 even pieces, about 14 grams each.

   
2. Sprinkle some flour to prevent sticking and cover them with a plastic film so they don't dry out.
   
3. Put one piece of dough on the working surface with the cut cross section facing vertically and flatten it into a small round pancake. One hand uses a rolling pin to roll the edge of the dough back and forth while the other hand rotates the dough. Repeat that, and you will get a round wrapper with a thick middle and a thinner edge, about 7.5 cm / 3 inches in diameter.
   
4. Put some filling in the middle of the wrapper. Use your left hand to hold the dumpling. Use your right hand to pinch the edge, fold the pleats all the way around, and close the dumpling. Each pleat is about ⅕ inch wide. You should slightly pull the wrapper between each pinch and fold, which is how you can get the dumpling to look tight and neat. The wrapper and filling ratio depends on your skill. You want the skin to be super thin and delicate, so you should wrap as much filling as you can. For a 14g wrapper, I use 25g filling, but that takes a lot of practice. For beginners, you may want to go down to 14g wrapper with 18g filling instead.
   

Steam the dumplings and make the dipping sauce

1. Place the dumplings into a steamer with parchment paper under them to prevent sticking.

   
2. Pre-boil a pot of water and place the steamer above it. Steam the xiao long bao over high heat for 15 minutes.
   
3. While waiting, make the dipping sauce by combining the soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, and julienned ginger.
   

Enjoy the soup dumplings with elegance

1. Xiao long bao is the art of dumplings. Recklessly taking a bite will probably cause the hot soup to spill all over your shirt. So instead, the local stream of people passes on a limerick, which perfectly explains how to eat them properly.
   

2. 轻轻提，慢慢移 Soup dumpling is delicate, so please pick it up by its topknot and carefully move it to your serving dish.

   

3. 先开窗，后喝汤 Make a small opening and tilt the dumpling so that the soup flows out. Blow to cool it and take a sip to enjoy the purest flavor.

   

4. 一口光，满口香 Add the dipping sauce and eat the rest in one bite, allowing the flavor to burst in your mouth.