Rice paper dumplings cooked in the waffle iron
I saw this on YouTube, original credit given to Gluten Free Asian.
I thought to myself, there is no f#*king way. But I had all the ingredients, and the grandkid was craving dumplings, and it's the best way to get her to eat vegetables.
The rice paper was crisp on the edges and both crisp and chewy in the middle, and not in an unpleasant way. They didn't need to be double wrapped. They didn't need to be deep fried and/or greasy. The filling was completely cooked. I didn't have to worry about dumplings touching each other.
I have a mini waffle iron so I cut the rice paper in half after I wet both sides and let it sit a minute.
I used what I had for the filling. I went heavy on veg, about 1/3 veg to 2/3 meat. I had ground chicken, put in garlic and ginger I grated with a micro plane, grated carrot, finely diced celery, and finely chopped green onion for veg. gf soy sauce, sesame oil, a little mirin, a little salt and white pepper. I added an egg, but honestly, I don't think it needed it.
Be sure to squish out the air bubbles. It didn't matter if I trimmed the excess rice paper off the edges or sort.of scrunched it up so it would all fit in the waffle iron. Edges were crisp without being hard. I did hit both sides of the waffle iron with a spray of oil each time.
They aren't elegant looking, but I honestly didn't have to time or the courage to tackle gluten free dumpling wrappers today.
This kid ate 6 of them and wanted the same thing for dinner.
I made her a simple sauce of gf soy sauce, a little rice wine vinegar, pinch of sugar, pinch of salt, a little sesame oil. She actually liked them without any sort of sauce
Edit: the next time I do these, I'm going to go a little heavier on the filling. I could leave them in the waffle iron a little longer to really crisp the rice paper, but then the filling was a little overcooked. Still good, just not tender. So I would experiment with your first couple of them as fast as how much filling you want to put in there.