Handmade Popiah Skin: How It's Made and Why It's Only 0.5 mm Thin

Not all popiah skin is handmade. Most popiah sold in Singapore is rolled by hand, but the skin itself, the thin wheat wrapper that holds everything together, is usually machine-made. At Souperstar, every roll uses handmade popiah skin from our parent company, Fortune Food, made fresh each morning. Here's what goes into it and why it matters.

What popiah skin is

Popiah skin is a soft, unfried wheat-flour wrapper. It's made from a simple dough of flour, water and salt, worked until it's elastic enough to stretch paper-thin without tearing. Unlike a spring roll wrapper, it isn't fried: the skin stays soft and springy, with a light chew, and is eaten fresh.

How handmade popiah skin is made

The traditional method is called hand-rubbing. The skin maker holds a ball of wet, elastic dough in one hand and rubs it in a quick circle onto a hot flat griddle, leaving behind a thin, even film that cooks in seconds. The sheet is lifted off, stacked, and the next one follows. A skilled maker does this hundreds of times an hour, and the motion has to be exact: too slow and the skin is thick and doughy, too fast and it tears or has holes.

It's laborious, early-morning work, and it's the reason most producers have switched to machines. Fortune Food's skin makers have kept the hand-rubbed method for more than four decades because the result is different in a way you can taste.

Why it's only 0.5 mm thin

Each piece of our skin is less than half a millimetre thick. That thinness is the whole point: it's enough to hold a full roll of turnip, egg, crispy bits and sauces without splitting, but light enough that you taste the filling, not the wrapper. A thicker, machine-pressed skin adds chew and bulk and dulls the flavours inside.

Handmade vs machine-made popiah skin

• Texture. Handmade skin is soft and springy with a slight chew. Machine-made skin tends to be thin but papery and dry, and goes brittle at the edges.
• Strength. Hand-rubbed dough is more elastic, so the skin stretches around a tightly packed roll without tearing.
• Freshness. Handmade skin is made the same day it's used. Machine-made skin is usually made in bulk and stored.
• Flavour. Handmade skin has a faint toasted-wheat taste from the griddle. Most machine-made skin tastes of very little.

Where our popiah skin comes from

Souperstar is a brand of Fortune Food, a Singapore popiah maker whose founder perfected the hand-rubbed technique in 1980. Fortune Food's team still makes the skin by hand every morning, and the same skin goes into every Souperstar popiah, from the Traditional Popiah to our fusion rolls. If you'd like to roll your own at home, Fortune Food sells fresh handmade popiah skin online.

Frequently asked questions

Is popiah skin the same as a spring roll wrapper?
No. Spring roll wrappers are designed to be deep-fried until crisp. Popiah skin is eaten fresh and soft, without frying.

How should fresh popiah skin be stored?
Keep it chilled in its packaging and eat it as soon as you can. Fresh skin is at its best the day it's made and dries out quickly once exposed to air.

How many calories are in popiah skin?
Lab-tested at 56 kcal per piece. That's about a quarter of a 10-inch burrito tortilla; see our popiah skin vs tortilla comparison.

Is handmade popiah skin vegan?
Yes. The skin is made from wheat flour, water and salt only. Our Vegetarian Popiah uses the same skin with a meat-free, egg-free filling.

Want to taste the difference? Order popiah delivery across Singapore, or a bulk popiah order for your next office lunch or party.