Scallion Pancakes - Cong You Bing

by Risa Togo

A traditional Taiwanese snack/food.

Ingredients (for 4 pancakes):

Dough:

  • 325 ml water
  • 500g all-purpose flour (65% hydration dough)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • vegetable oil for greasing the surface and cooking (peanut, sunflower)

Scallion filling:

  • 15 stalks of green onion
  • salt

Optional toppings:

  • eggs (1 for each pancake)
  • dipping sauce (1 tsp gochujang, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1tsp water, 0.5 tsp chili oil, 0.5 tsp chilli sauce

Dipping sauce:

  • 1 tsp gochujang
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1tsp water
  • 0.5 tsp chili oil
  • 0.5 tsp chilli sauce

Instructions:

  1. Prepare the dough by mixing the flour, salt and baking powder and adding in the water. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes and knead again until smooth.
  2. Separate the dough into 4 portions. Cover the surface of dough with oil and paper towel to prevent the surface drying out and allow the dough to rest for another 30 minutes.
  3. Chop up the green onions into very fine small pieces.
  4. Roll out the dough portion into a very large and thin sheet (2mm thick).
  5. Brush vegetable oil generously and evenly distribute green onion over the top. Sprinkle salt generously.
  6. Carefully and tightly roll up the scallion pancake (like a cinnamon roll) and pinch the ends shut. Now roll this into a coil to form a round ball shape.
  7. Flatten and roll out the ball with a rolling pin, to get a round and thin pancake (3-4mm). Repeat steps 4-7 with all the dough portions, to get 4 pancakes!
  8. On medium-low heat, fry the pancakes in vegetable oil until golden brown on both sides. If adding eggs; mix the egg, lift the pancake up and pour the egg into the pan underneath the pancake.
  9. Take the pancake out of the pan and use two wooden spatulas to squish the pancake to fluff up the inner layers.
  10. Serve just like that or with the dipping sauce!

Enjoy!