Coiled Scallion & Toasted Sesame Flatbreads (葱油饼)
Hot-water dough, sizzling scallion-five-spice roux, and the simple joy of shattering crisp layers torn by hand.
Whenever friends come over for soup on a grey New England Sunday, this is the dough resting under an overturned ceramic bowl on my counter. Unlike yeasted breads that demand a watchful schedule, half-scalded flour dough patiently waits while you chop scallions and catch up over tea.
The secret to genuine street-stall flakiness isn’t brushing plain oil onto the rolled sheet—pure oil runs right off the edges. Whisking hot oil into a few spoonfuls of salted flour and white pepper creates `油酥` (you su), a velvety paste that stays exactly between each microscopic layer of dough so they puff apart in the skillet.
Coiled Scallion & Sesame Flatbreads (葱油饼)
Shatteringly crisp pan-toasted flatbreads laminated with hot scallion oil paste (`you su` / 油酥) and finished with toasted white sesame seeds.
Ingredients
Half-Scalded Dough (烫面)
Sizzling Oil Roux (油酥) & Filling
Method
- 01
Whisk flour in a wide bowl. Stream the 150 ml boiling water over half the flour while stirring with chopsticks into shaggy flakes (this gelatinizes starches for tenderness). Stream the 85 ml cool water over the other half, mix everything together, and knead for 5 minutes into a tacky ball. Brush with sesame oil, cover, and rest 40 minutes—it will turn silky smooth.
- 02
Meanwhile, stir 3 tbsp flour, salt, five-spice, and white pepper in a heatproof ceramic bowl. Pour the hot shimmering oil over top; whisk into a pourable golden paste (you su) and let cool.
- 03
Divide rested dough into 6 equal pieces on a lightly oiled counter (avoid extra dry flour, which burns in the pan). Roll one piece into a paper-thin rectangle.
- 04
Brush a thin coat of the savory oil paste across the dough, scatter generously with dry sliced scallions, and roll tightly from the long edge into a rope. Coil the rope into a tight snail spiral, tuck the tail underneath, and let rest 10 minutes while you shape the remaining five.
- 05
Brush the top of each coil lightly with water, press into toasted sesame seeds, and gently roll flat into an 18 cm round.
- 06
Pan-fry in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat with 1 tbsp oil for 3 minutes per side until deeply golden and blistered. Scrunch each hot pancake gently between two pairs of chopsticks (or clean kitchen towels) right out of the pan to fluff and separate the flaky layers.
Drying your chopped scallions on a clean towel for 15 minutes prevents steam blowouts when rolling. Uncooked rolled disks freeze wonderfully stacked between squares of parchment—cook straight from frozen adding 90 seconds per side.