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A stack of scallion pancakes.
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5 from 9 votes

Crispy and Flaky Chinese Scallion Pancake (蔥油餅)

step instructions with tips and tricks that I picked up from my 10+ years of experience will help you recreate these amazing scallion pancakes at home.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Resting time1 hour
Total Time1 hour 45 minutes
Course: Bread, Taiwanese
Cuisine: Taiwanese
Servings: 4 scallion pancakes
Calories: 304kcal
Author: Edwina

Ingredients

  • 3-4 stalks of scallions

Dough

  • 2 cups all purpose flour 250g
  • ½ cup hot water (around 195°F, 90°C) 125g
  • cold water

Oil Paste (will have extra)

  • ¼ cup all purpose flour 30g
  • tbsps lard can be replaced by sesame oil or cooking oil
  • tbsps cooking oil
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt

Optional Toppings

  • black pepper
  • white pepper
  • toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Prepare Scallions

  • Wash and thinly slice scallions, let them dry on the chopping board until ready to use. If your scallion is on the thicker side, cut the white portion of the scallion stalks lengthwise before slicing.

Make the dough

  • Pour hot water In a mixing bowl with all purpose flour, stir and mix with chopsticks until it becomes clumpy. After the dough cools slightly, knead the dough by hand for 2-3 minutes until a dough ball is formed and the mixing bowl and your hands become relatively clean. Add more cold water if needed.
  • Put the dough in a lightly oiled Ziploc bag or wrap it with plastic wrap to rest for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Make oil paste

  • Meanwhile, mix the oil paste ingredients in a small bowl until well combined. The consistency will depend on the type of fat you use and the temperature; it can be runny.

Assembling Scallion Pancakes

  • After the dough is done resting, divide it into 4 equal pieces. Tuck the edges into the bottom, apply some oil on the surface, cover and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
  • Work on the dough one at a time while keeping the others covered. Roll the dough into a long rectangular shape, with around ⅛ inch thickness.
  • Apply a thin and even layer of oil paste on the surface and put scallions on top of it. Add desired optional toppings.
  • Roll the dough from the bottom all the way up while squeezing out the air inside. Using the resulting log of dough, form two spirals from the two ends of the log, with one spiral being smaller than the other. (see pictures in the post for reference)
  • Tuck the small spiral under the big one and press the big spiral down over the small one. Repeat for the 3 other lumps of dough. Cover resulting buns with plastic wrap and let rest for around 30 minutes (could be stored overnight in the fridge for using the next day).

Cooking Scallion Pancakes

  • Roll the spiral lumps of dough out on an oiled surface into a 7 inch pancakes.
  • Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a skillet over medium heat before pan frying the pancake for one minute on each side. Continue flipping and cooking until evenly golden brown. Add more oil when needed as each pancake is being cooked.
  • Finally, after the pancake is almost finished, use two spatulas or tongs to scrunch the pancakes from two sides 2 to 3 times to "fluff it up" and accentuate the layers right before serving.

Notes

  • Resting the assembled scallion pancakes before rolling out gives them time to develop the flavor while prevents the dough from breaking.
  • When pan frying scallion pancakes, the first one usually takes a bit longer to cook since your pan is not hot enough.  It will starts to cook faster from the second one, so make sure you watch and adjust the heat accordingly. 
  • If you want to make more and freeze them, separate each roll out raw pancake with parchment paper, put in a freezer storage bag and store in the freezer for up to a month. Follow the cooking direction and cook directly without thawing.
  • Lard is the key ingredient making a flavorful scallion pancake, and it's very easy to make at home, you can either save the oil from pan-frying pork belly or grind the pork fat and steam it for 30 minutes (with cover so water won't get in); however, if you are vegetarian or just don't want to use lard, you can replace it with sesame oil or just regular cooking oil.
 

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 304kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Sodium: 584mg | Potassium: 87mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 278IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 24mg | Iron: 3mg