Directions

1. Make the soy flavor spicy sauce. In a sauce pot, add in 2 tsp of oil, 2 tbsp of Sichuan Dou Ban Jiang, 2.5 tbsp of soybean paste, 1 tbsp of sweet soy bean sauce. Stir it to corporate well. Add 2 tsp of garlic, 1 tsp of ginger. Stir it a little bit and add 2 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 2 tbsp of water. Keep cooking it on medium heat. Reduce the sauce until it thickens. Add some toasted sesame seed. This sauce recipe is enough for 12 soy flavor pancakes. So I will store it in a jar. It can last 1 month in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer.

2. Make 2 types of dough. The first one we call it 半发面, which means half raised dough. The second one we call it tangmian (烫面) which is use boiling hot water to make the dough. Will explain why later. Now let’s make the first one.

3. In a large bowl, add in 250 grams of flour, along with 1/4 tsp of salt. Give it a mix. Dissolve 1 tsp of yeast into 125 grams of warm water. The temperature is about 38 degrees Celsius or 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Slowly pour the yeast water into the flour. Stir it with chopsticks. Gather all the flour together. Make it into a dough. Knead it until smooth. Cover it and Let it sit for 25 minutes.

4. While the first dough is sitting, let’s make the second one. You will also need 250 grams of all-purpose flour, along with 1/4 tsp of salt. Give it a mix. Then slowly pour in 140 grams of boiled hot water. At the same time, use chopsticks to stir it. Hot water will denature the protein of the flour which will make the pancakes turn out super flaky. Let it cool down a little so your hands can handle it. Start kneading it until smooth. Cover this and let it rest for 10 minutes.

5. 10 minutes later. The first dough should become a little bit bigger. If you open it up. There are some bubbles but it is not fully raised. You just combine these 2 pieces of dough together. Half raised dough will your pancakes the soft middle layer and hot water dough will give the pancake crispy outside layer. By putting them together, the pancakes will turn out with a great texture.

6. Once 2 types of dough are well combined, cover it and let it sit for 5 minutes. During this 5 minutes, you can make the oil-flour mixture which we call it You Su [油酥]. 1.5 tbsp of all-purpose flour + 1.5 tbsp of vegetable oil. Mix it until you don’t see any lumps. This is what makes your pancakes have so many layers.

7. Now, let’s get back to our dough. Roll it a little bit then roughly divide it into 6 pieces.

8. Take one piece. Flatten it by your hand and roll it into a round shape. Once you get it into 7 inches across. Cut the dough sheet and brush the oil-flour mixture on the dough sheet. Save the end of it and don’t brush that part. Roll it from one side. Make it into something like an ice cream comb. Tug the end under it. Let it stand up and flatten it. Then you just do the same thing and finish the rest of them.

9. Flatten it with your hand. Roll it into a thin piece. The size should be about 6-7 inches across.

10. Add some oil in the pan. Place in the pancake. Spin it with your hand so it gets cook evenly. Keep the heat on medium low. Once one side is slightly cooked you can flip it over and cook the other side. Make sure you keep pressing the pancakes so it doesn’t inflate. Keep flipping and pressing down the pancake until both sides are golden brown. It will take about 6-8 minutes in total.

11. Take it out and put it on a cutting board. Brush the soy flavor sauce we just made. Sprinkle some spring onion. Cut it into the size you like and you are done.