Shaobing

A baked layered flatbread whose layers come from a cooked flour-and-oil paste rolled through it rather than from folding alone.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains honey.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 400 g plain flour
• 5 g fast-action yeast
• 10 g sugar
• 4 g salt
• 240 ml warm water
• 20 ml flavourless oil

For the layering paste

• 60 g plain flour
• 60 ml flavourless oil, heated until it shimmers
• 2 tablespoons sesame paste
• 1 teaspoon five spice
• 1 teaspoon salt

To finish

• 2 tablespoons maltose or honey, loosened with water
• 80 g white sesame seeds

Method

1. THE LAYERS COME FROM A COOKED PASTE, NOT FROM FOLDING ALONE. Flour stirred into oil heated until it shimmers cooks to a loose roux that stays put when the dough is rolled. Raw flour and oil slide out at the edges and the bread comes out as one dense piece with a greasy middle.
2. AND IT IS BAKED, NOT FRIED. That is what separates this from a coiled pancake cooked in a pan: dry heat all round sets the outside while the layers steam apart inside, and the sesame on top toasts rather than burning in oil.
3. Yeast and sugar into the warm water, 5 minutes until it clouds. Into the flour with the salt and oil, kneaded 8 minutes to a soft smooth dough. Risen 1 hour.
4. Paste: the oil heated in a small pan until it shimmers, then poured onto the flour and stirred at once -- it will hiss and thicken. Sesame paste, five spice and salt stirred in. Cooled to room temperature.
5. The dough rolled out to a large rectangle about 5 mm thick.
6. The paste spread over it in a thin even layer, right to three edges and leaving 2 cm clear on the long edge furthest from you.
7. Rolled up tightly from the near edge, like a swiss roll, and the clear edge pinched to seal.
8. The roll stretched gently to about double its length, then cut into 8.
9. EACH PIECE STOOD ON ITS CUT END and pressed down flat with the palm, so the spiral faces up and down rather than sideways. Rolled out to about 1 cm thick. This is what puts the layers in the right plane; rolled on its side, they run the wrong way and the bread will not open.
10. Tops brushed with the loosened maltose and pressed face down into the sesame seeds, which stick to the syrup and nothing else.
11. Rested 20 minutes on the tray.
12. Oven to 220C, 18 to 20 minutes, until deep gold and hollow to a tap underneath.
13. Split one open while warm: it should pull apart in sheets rather than tearing like bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes