How Do You Pleat Your Dumplings?

[soypower]

I've noticed there's a lot of different methods out there for wrapping and pleating gyoza/mandu/potstickers/jiaozi...I personally used the fold over then pleat method until a japanese friend showed me how to pleat just one side while sealing which resulted in a nice, crescent-shaped dumpling with a flat bottom and sides that went up to form a sort of pyramid. This method seems to work well for pan-frying, though I prefer to just fold over without pleating when doing jiaozi...I've also seen a method where only three pleats are made...so the question is, how do you pleat your dumplings?

[hannaone]

Usually the fold and pleat, but sometimes I will use slightly less filling, fold and seal, then turn sideways and bring the sharp ends together at the opposite side of the seam, press, then fold the seam upwards. This results in a circular dumpling that is great for soups or for frying.

[ipsedixit]

No fold-over. Just pleat directly.

Hold rolled out dumpling skin on left palm, scoop in some filling, bring the dumpling skin from the 2 o'clock position to the 4 o'clock position and begin pleating.

Do it enough times and you'll end up with the pic below.

[Scrapironchef]

Pleat one side for the giganto batch of gyoza I make once a month or so.

[oryza]

Goodness... I can't pleat a dumpling to save my life... I just seal and then take the little corners and put them together to make a pleasingly round shape in lieu of trying to make attractive folds.

Any tips out there? Anytime I try to pleat, they (1) fall apart, (2) end up squishy-looking and ugly, or (3) are so inconsistent

[ipsedixit]

Practice, practice and more practice.

And not cheating! No egg-washes as binders! :-)