葱油饼Scallion pancakes
Laminated-style flatbread: a half-hot-water dough wrapped around a layer of scallion-and-oil, rolled thin, pan-fried until blistered and crisp on the outside, and folded on the inside so each bite has a soft leaf and a crackly edge. The scallion oil is the flavor, not the scallion.
Technique notes
The structure is the same as a shortcrust, or a hand-pie, or puff pastry: alternating layers of soft dough and fat, rolled and folded, heat-set in the pan. The "two-water" dough (half hot, half cold) is what makes the layers flake: the hot water sets a slurry of some of the starch, so the gluten network is weaker, and the sheet stretches into thin leaves instead of snapping back. The fat between the layers is scallion oil — the scallion is flavor, and the oil is the structural fat that creates the separation. Pan heat covers how the medium pan and the oil at ~ 160 °C brown the surface without scorching the interior, and knife skills covers the scallion cut this recipe depends on.
Equipment
- Smooth 26–30 cm (10–12 in) flat-bottomed pan, or a well-seasoned non-stick
- Rolling pin
- Bench scraper, or a sharp knife, to divide the dough
Ingredients
- 200 g (1½ cups, spooned) all-purpose flour
- 100 ml (about ¾ cup) boiling water
- 50 ml (¼ cup) cold water
- 2 g salt
- 15 g (about 3 stalks) scallions, white and green, cut into 5 mm rings and short pieces (green bits for the filling, white bits for the oil)
- 40 ml (2½ tbsp) neutral oil, divided — 15 ml for the scallion-oil layer, the rest for the pan
- Sweet-and-sour or hot-chili dip for the table, 30 ml soy mixed with 10 ml vinegar and 5 g chili oil, or store-bought xiang cuo, as you like
Method
- Whisk the flour and salt in a bowl. Pour in the 100 ml of boiling water all at once, mixing with chopsticks until shaggy — the hot water sets part of the starch and that's the point — then add the cold water and work to a shaggy, slightly sticky mass. This is the "two-water" dough; it should feel like a rough, not-smooth paste, and it will look a little ragged. That's fine.
- Cover and rest at least 30 minutes — while the sheet relaxes, the gluten loosens and the second stretch in step 4 goes from "fights you" to "behaves."
- Make the scallion oil. Heat 15 ml of the oil in a small pan over low heat and add the scallion white pieces. Leave them, gently pressing down, for 3–4 minutes until they go pale gold and the oil smells of raw scallion turning into cooked scallion — the flavor you want. Switch off the heat and stir in the scallion green pieces so they wilt in the residual heat instead of going black. This is the layer you're going to spread in the next step, so the scallion has to be fully fragrant before it touches the dough.
- Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Work one (keep the rest covered) on a lightly floured surface: roll it into a rough rectangle about 20 × 30 cm. With a little oil on your finger, brush a thin, even coat of the scallion oil over the surface, leaving a 1 cm border. Fold it into thirds like an envelope — top down, bottom up, left over middle, right over middle — so you've built four layers of dough with oil between them. Wrap in cling film and rest 10 minutes so the outer layer softens.
- Roll the parcel out into a rough disc 20 cm across and 2–3 mm thick — it will look ragged and the edges will tear a bit, which is where the flake will be. Don't worry about a perfect round.
- Heat the pan over medium with 5 ml of oil until it shimmers — you want the surface of the pancake to sizzle on contact and brown, not fry. Lay the disc in and cook 2–3 minutes until the underside is mottled gold and set. Flip, add 5 ml more oil to the pan and 2 ml brushed over the top surface, and cook another 2–3 minutes until crisp and deep gold, turning it a few more times as the fat soaks in. The total per pancake is about 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a plate, cut into wedges with a sharp knife or scissors as you go, and serve warm with the dip.
Common failures
- Pancake is dense, like a thick flatbread, with no flake. Usually the scallion-oil layer is missing or too thin — that's the structural fat that separates the layers. If you roll the dough out flat without the oil in between, you get a solid sheet that bakes rather than flakes.
- Skin is tough and it spring-backs while you roll. The dough was worked too much or rested too little. Less knead, more rest. If it's still fighting you in step 4, give it another 10 minutes under the film.
- Underside is dark and burnt, top is pale. The pan is too hot for the oil-and-butter combination at that thickness. Drop to the lower end of medium and add more oil between flips — the oil is what carries the heat evenly to both faces.
- Scallion tastes raw and green, not sweet. The white pieces went in at full heat and scorched, or the green pieces got in too early and blackened. White pieces at low heat, green pieces off the heat.
Variations & substitutions
- Oil-free lamination — replace the scallion oil with 30 g of cold butter cut into 5 mm pieces scattered over the dough before the envelope fold. The butter makes the flake noticeably more shattering, and it's the closest thing to a Chinese laminated pastry in a home kitchen.
- Whole-wheat — swap up to 100 g of the all-purpose for whole-wheat. Beyond that the crumb goes coarse and the layers don't lift as cleanly.
- More scallion, less dough — this is a vehicle for scallion, so doubling the scallion in step 3 is fair. What you don't want is a green-flecked plain flour cracker.
- Frozen dough — the wrapped parcels, before the final roll, freeze well for a couple of weeks. Roll them while they're still a little cold and pan-fry them straight, adding a minute to the second side.
What to serve with it
The classic pairing is a bowl of congee — the pancakes on the side, the warm liquid in the bowl, the scallion oil in both. If there's a soup day, the pancakes are the bread that soaks up the broth. For the sweet-and-sour dip, a quick 30 ml soy and 10 ml black vinegar with 5 g chili oil is the standard home version.
More
Back to Chinese · Techniques (pan heat, knife skills, frying)