These melted chocolate dessert dumplings made with homemade dumpling wrappers and paired with a strawberry dipping sauce will make your tastebuds soar!
These melted chocolate dumplings made with homemade dumpling wrappers and paired with a strawberry dipping sauce will send your tastebuds to the moon and back.
These Chocolate dumplings are the luxurious chocolate dessert you never knew you needed. These velvety chocolate dumplings will instantly melt and provide a delicious chocolate explosion in your mouth. Pair it with a fruity strawberry sauce for the perfect flavor combination!
The ever-so-famous Din-Tai-Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant that is famous for its legendary Xiao Long Bao, Shanghai Style soup dumplings, made this dessert chocolate popular.
Normally, dessert dumplings are made with a red bean or taro paste which are equally as delicious. However, I don’t know about you but sometimes you just need to have some chocolate in your life. So throw out those store-bought chocolates because you deserve a real treat made for a queen.
Ingredients
Chocolate lava dumplings are made with two very basic components: 1. Dumpling Wrapper and 2. Chocolate Ganache. The simplicity of this dessert highlights the beautiful richness of the chocolate.
1. Dumpling Wrapper: I tried making this dessert two different ways: a) store-bought wrappers and b) homemade dumpling wrappers.
a) Store-bought wrappers: So, I thought I could simplify this process even more by using store-bought wrappers. This is 100% doable and will taste just as delicious. However, store-bought wrappers are much thinner than handmade ones and the chocolate will shine through the wrapper when you steam them. This is totally a personal preference but I wanted that picture-perfect dumpling so I went with the homemade wrapper.
b) Homemade wrapper: Making a homemade wrapper at home, pleasantly surprised me with how simple it was! You will need flour, salt, boiling water, and 30 minutes and voila the dough is made.
2. Chocolate Ganache. The chocolate ganache gives you the silky chocolate lava after the dumplings pop out of the hot steamer. All you will need is heavy cream and baking chocolate. Callebaut Baking Chocolate reigns as the most superior melting chocolate I have ever used. You can use milk chocolate, semi-sweet or dark. It’s your dumpling go with what you love.
How to Make Chocolate Dumplings
Dumpling Dough and Filling
Make the Dumpling Dough: Add flour and salt to a large bowl. Slowly pour in boiled water. Then mix the dough together with a fork or chopsticks until water is absorbed. Use your fingers to grab the dough and pinch it together to form a cohesive dough ball. Knead for 2-3 min until the dough is round and smooth. Place dough in a ziplock bag or cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 min or up to 3 hours. This allows the dough to soak in the moisture and makes the dough malleable for stretching.
Make Chocolate Ganache: Add chocolate chips to a heatproof bowl. Warm up heavy cream in a saucepan until it simmers. Pour heavy cream over the chocolate. Using a spatula mix until the chocolate has melted. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
Assembly
Assembly: Take the dough and cut it in half. Roll half the dough into a 1-inch thick rope and place the other half back into the plastic to prevent it from drying. Cut each rope of dough into 16 equal pieces, for a total of 32 pieces. Press the dough with the palm of your hand to form a flat disc. Roll dough into a 4” round circle.
Take one wrapper and fill it with 1 tbsp of ganache. Tightly pleat by pinching the dough in a circle and seal. I pinched the dough roughly 12-14 times. Pro-tip, when you reach the end of the circle continue pinching around the center two or three times to fully seal the dumpling. Place the formed dumpling on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dumplings.
Steam: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Line your bamboo steamer with perforated parchment paper. Fill the steamer with dumplings, spaced 1/2 inch apart. Cover the steamer with the lid and steam for 6-7 minutes.
Strawberry Dipping Sauce
Dice up the strawberries into small pieces. Dicing the strawberries creates a better texture than blending them in a blender or food processor.
Mix the lemon and cornstarch together in a small bowl to make a slurry. This prevents the clumping of the cornstarch when you mix it with the strawberries.
In a saucepan mix together the strawberries, sugar, lemon, and cornstarch and cook over medium heat until it simmers and reduces into a paste about 10-15 minutes.
Tips for the Best Chocolate Dumplings
Chill the chocolate ganache: when you melt the chocolate, the chocolate will be soft and runny and too difficult to assemble the dumpling. When you chill the chocolate, it will solidify and will be 100x easier to scoop out into balls and pinch around the dumplings. If when you are assembling the dumplings the chocolate begins to melt, place it back in the refrigerator to harden.
Tightly pleat the dumplings: When you pleat the dumplings, you must tightly pinch the dough together to keep from any chocolate explosions. To get the perfect spiral shape, once you finish pinching around the first circle, continue pinching the top in a circle two or three more times while softly twisting the dough to get that tight ball.
Line the steamer: Line your steamer with perforated parchment paper to prevent the dumplings from sticking to the steamer and possibly exploding when you lift them out.
These melted chocolate dessert dumplings made with homemade dumpling wrappers and paired with a strawberry dipping sauce will make your tastebuds soar!
Add flour and salt into a large bowl. Slowly pour in just-boiled water. Mix the dough together with a fork or chopsticks until water is absorbed. Use your fingers to grab the dough and pinch together to form a cohesive dough ball.
Knead for 2-3 min until the dough is round and smooth. Place dough in a ziplock bag or cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 min or up to 3 hours
Chocolate Ganache
Add chocolate chips to a heatproof bowl. Warm-up heavy cream in a saucepan until it simmers. Pour heavy cream over the chocolate. Using a spatula mix until the chocolate has melted. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
Assembly
Take the dough and cut it in half. Roll half the dough into 1 in thick rope and place the other half back into the plastic so it doesn’t dry out.
Cut each rope of dough into 16 equal pieces, for a total of 32 pieces. Press the dough with the palm of your hand to form a flat disc. Roll out dough into a 4” round circle.
Take one wrapper and fill with 1 tbsp of ganache. Tightly pleat by pinching the dough in a circle and seal about 12-14 pinches. When you reach the end of the circle continue pinching around the center two or three times to fully seal the dumpling.
Place the formed dumpling on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dumplings.
Steam the Dumplings
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Line your steamer with perforated parchment paper. Fill the steamer with dumplings, spaced 1/2 inch apart. Cover the steamer with the lid and steam for 6-7 minutes.
Strawberry sauce
Dice up the strawberries into small pieces. Mix the lemon and cornstarch together in a small bowl to make a slurry.
In a saucepan mix together the strawberries, sugar, lemon, and cornstarch and cook over medium heat until it simmers and reduces into a paste about 10-15 minutes.
Notes
Chill the chocolate ganache in the refrigerator to harden before assembling the dumplings.
Tightly pleat the dumplings and make sure there aren’t any holes to risk explosions.
Line the steamer with parchment paper to keep the dumplings from sticking.
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