green onion pancake: savory, vegan, asian-style pancake

Green onion pancake made by boiling-water dough with some green onions (sesame seeds and salt) has flaky and crispy texture.

It’s a popular and traditional asian street snack.

Boiling-water dough, aka tangmian, is a traditional asian dough forming method. Adding hot boiling water to break the gluten of the dough, it has two distinguishing characters:

1. the dough is super soft, easy to be operated and shaped.
2. without strong gluten link, product is flaky and crispy, very suitable for deep frying and pan frying.

Simple ingredients, simple methods, and wonderful flavors.

1. PANCAKE DOUGH

this recipe makes 6 pancake wrappers, each weighs about 80g.

item	weight	cups or spoons	weight % to flour
plain flour	300 g	2 + 1/2 cups	100 %
boiling water	180 g	3/4 cup	60 % (~ 70 %)
oil	15 g	1 tbsp	5 %
salt	3 g	1/2 tsp	1 %
total ingredients weight	500 g	–	–
total ingredients ratio	–	–	166%
reference	1 cup = 240ml	1 tbsp = 15ml	1 tsp = 5ml

2. PANCAKE FILLINGS

item	weight	cups or spoons
green onion	100 g	5 stems
oil	27 g	2 tbsp
salt	1 g	1/4 tsp
sesame seeds	12 g	1 tbsp
reference	1 cup = 240ml	1 tbsp = 15ml, 1 tsp = 5ml

DOUGH

1. mix flour, water, oil, and salt into a large bowl
2. since we have boiling water poured in, don’t put your hands into the bowl right away, use a spatula to give it a good stir
3. when the dough is a bit cool down, it’s time to start a short kneading, and have it covered with a lid, let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes

FILLINGS

1. when the dough is resting, we can prepare the green onion fillings
2. mix green onions, oil, salt, and sesame seeds all together
3. it can be used right away

Here I’ll introduce 2 ways of shaping, one is flat-round shape, the other is bulk-round shape:

FLAT-ROUND SHAPE

1. the first is simple and quick, similar to making cinnamon rolls
2. flat the dough in a square rectangle shape
3. spread the green onion filling, carefully roll it up
4. divide it into 6 portions
5. put them into a container and let it chill for 20 to 30 minutes, this step is optional,
6. use your rolling pin and make it a 8-inch round flat dough. it gets a little bit messy but very worth it when it’s all done

BULK-ROUND SHAPE

the second is also easy, roll each dough separately and make it a spiral shape

PAN-FRIED

1. with or without oil, put the flat dough directly into the pan
2. let it cook for 4 minutes each side
3. there we have, the green onion pancake