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Rolling pin or tortilla press?

9K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  butzy 
#1 ·
I'm looking to start making some doughy products and I'm not sure if I should invest in a tortilla press or just use a rolling pin?

I'm going to make dumplings for now, and since they are smaller, I'm not sure if the larger rolling pin I found would work well?

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/ate...ench-rolling-pin-august-thomsen/14420175.html

It was recommended to use a 12" dowel, and this was the most similar in size and diameter.

The next option was a tortilla press, but most of the presses I see seem to be junk, not cast iron, and be painted/flake.

I was looking at this press http://www.webstaurantstore.com/7-1-2-cast-iron-tortilla-press/407TORT75.html

Which seems to have great reviews, but a couple mentions of loose screw, and one mention of break (claimed he misused it though).

I'm curious what people think? The press seems super easy though.
 
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#2 ·
The press is harder to use than it looks. It will not give you a perfectly even thickness either, and you may not be able to control the thickness as much as you want, leaving you with a product that's thicker than desired. It's also hard on your arms. And you are also limited in the shape and size of the dough you flatten. 

For those reasons I would favor the rolling pin approach. I wouldn't worry about the rolling pin being too long, in fact longer is better, you can flatten a lot of dough at the same time, then you can just cut the desired shapes. Much easier IMO. 

Another approach would be to use a pasta roller machine. It will give you the absolute perfect evenly thin sheets of pasta dough... but you have to consider that you'll have to take it out of the box, set it up, there'll be flour on your floor (and probably just about everywhere)... so probably a little bit messier. 
 
#3 ·
The press is harder to use than it looks. It will not give you a perfectly even thickness either, and you may not be able to control the thickness as much as you want, leaving you with a product that's thicker than desired. It's also hard on your arms. And you are also limited in the shape and size of the dough you flatten.

For those reasons I would favor the rolling pin approach. I wouldn't worry about the rolling pin being too long, in fact longer is better, you can flatten a lot of dough at the same time, then you can just cut the desired shapes. Much easier IMO.

Another approach would be to use a pasta roller machine. It will give you the absolute perfect evenly thin sheets of pasta dough... but you have to consider that you'll have to take it out of the box, set it up, there'll be flour on your floor (and probably just about everywhere)... so probably a little bit messier.
Thank you, much appreciated.

I was going to buy some dough cutters, but these books I got (was doing amazon preview since I havn't picked them up at the mailbox yet), shows cutting the dough into small 1" pieces, and then flattening thhem.

I don't really see much in the way of pre-cutting, and since the Alteco kid was 15$, I might skip it for now...

Or would it be a much wiser choice to get the cutters?

IT doesn't seem like a necessity to me?

Thanks a lot.
 
#7 · (Edited)
That is if you're talking about chinese kind of dumpling skins and not "chicken and dumpling" dough balls
hmm.. weird.

One cookbook says "You want an Asian Dowel, which is usuall 12" in length, and 3/4" in diameter."

Other cookbook said use uses a thin 4" long dowel.

Are there any other instances you see of them doing that?

Also, each type of dumping, bun, etc might have a different method of prep/skin kind.

For instance soup douplings and Goyza seem to have very thin wrapping that you can see though.

But buns are very white and thick.
 
#9 ·
If you mean baozi, that is a whole different animal
I believe in the book they call it "Bao," wiki confirms it's the same thing. "Steam Buns" :).

IT seems these require extra bleached flour to be proper. I'm not sure what the others call for, but will check it out when I get my books tomorrow.

I've alwayus been interested in steam buns....

I want to make it all :))))))))))...

IT seems making your own dough, is the way to go. Some say it's not worth the effort, but you can make a ton of dough at once, and it should last awhile (not really sure will have to look it up).

I also would like to make my own "Hujiao bing" but I have no idea how I would get the proper oven for it, or how I would do it another way. Will go see some recipes and see how some do it at home.
 
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