Crunchy and flakey scallion pancakes are one step closer with this detailed recipe. Follow my tips to cook up your own crisp and flavorful cong you bing at home.
Sift the all purpose flour and cake flour in a mixing bowl.
In a kettle or over a stove, bring your water to a boil, then stir in the salt until it dissolves.
Carefully pour the boiling water into the flour and stir simultaneously with chopsticks. Continue to stir until it turns into a shaggy dough.
Use cleans hands to form the dough into a ball. Transfer the dough onto a clean surface and knead the dough for about five minutes or until it has a smooth surface.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
Roux
Heat a small saucepan over medium-low heat and add the lard and sesame oil (be warned there may be some splattering). After heating the oil and lard for about 30 seconds, add the flour and stir until combined. Cook for an additional two minutes, stirring occasionally, until it turns a medium brown color. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heat safe bowl to chill for about 15 minutes.
Assembly & cooking
This recipe is originally for four pancakes, so split into four pieces of dough. Take one serving and cover the rest of dough with the plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.
Lightly flour your surface and hands with all purpose flour. This will help the dough from sticking when you roll it out. Take the dough, sprinkle a little flour on top, and use a rolling pin to roll it out into a very thin circle. The thickness should be about two to three millimeters.
First rolling: Use a brush or your fingers to stir the roux and evenly spread a light coating of the roux on top of the dough (about ½ tsp). Try not using too much roux because it will over saturate the dough and break during rolling.
Starting from the bottom edge, begin to roll the dough away from you towards the top of your work surface. This should resemble a jelly roll and you should end up with a long tube.
Seal the tube by pinching the dough into itself. Take the right side of the tube and curl the tube so that it turns into a spiral.
Use your rolling pin to again roll out your dough to a very thin circle, about two to three millimeters thick with 25 centimeter diameter (or about 10 inches).
Second rolling: This is the same as the first rolling except we'll add the green onion with the roux.Use a brush or your fingers to again stir the roux and lightly spread the it over the dough.
Sprinkle minced scallions evenly over the surface. Take the bottom edge and begin to roll the dough away from you, carefully keeping the scallions flat.
Just like the first rolling, pinch the edges to the roll to make sure it doesn't unravel and take the right side of the tube and curl the tube to make a spiral. Place spiral under plastic wrap until you are ready to pan-fry.
When you are ready to fry, use the rolling pin to flatten out the spiral carefully. I only roll out the spirals right before I fry them because they might shrink if you pre-roll all the pancakes. You don’t want to break the thin dough skin holding in the scallions. I flatten it out to about five to eight millimeters (or about 3/16 inches) in thickness with a 13 centimeter diameter (or 5 inches).
Preheat your pan over medium heat and add vegetable oil. Lower the scallion pancake into the hot pan and cook for about one to two minutes or until the edge of the pancake begins to brown, then flip over and cook for another one to two minutes until the other end is brown. TIP: I like to put a smaller, heavy pot on top of the pancake to press and flatten it into the pan (you can also use your spatula to press down, but this gets tiring).
The entire cooking process takes anywhere from four to six minutes and I turn it over every two minutes. Remove the pancake when it’s golden brown and firm.
Place on a paper towel to remove excess oil and a cooling rack for faster cooling. Serve immediately.