Chinese Scallion Pancake Pinwheels: Crisp After-School Snack in 20 Minutes

Put the flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl, pour in the boiling water while stirring with chopsticks, then add the cold water and knead 3 minutes into a soft, smooth dough. Cover and rest 20 minutes.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) boiling water
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, for the dough
• 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, for the oil paste
• 6 scallions, very thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, for sprinkling
• 3 tablespoons neutral oil, for frying
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce, for the dip
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, for the dip
• 1 teaspoon chili crisp or a pinch of chili flakes, for the dip

Instructions

1. Put the flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl, pour in the boiling water while stirring with chopsticks, then add the cold water and knead 3 minutes into a soft, smooth dough. Cover and rest 20 minutes.
2. Warm the sesame oil in a small pan, whisk in the 2 tablespoons flour and cook 1 minute into a loose paste. This roux is what forces the layers apart into flakes.
3. Divide the rested dough into 2 pieces and roll each on a lightly floured counter into a thin rectangle about 10 by 14 inches (25 by 35 cm).
4. Brush each rectangle with the oil paste, sprinkle with kosher salt and scatter the scallions evenly over the surface.
5. Roll each rectangle up tightly from the long edge into a rope, then coil the rope into a snail and press flat with your palm.
6. Roll each coiled round out again to about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick, then cut into 8 wedges or roll and slice into pinwheel rounds.
7. Heat the neutral oil in a skillet over medium heat and fry the pieces in batches for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until deeply golden and audibly crisp at the edges.
8. Drain briefly on a rack, not paper towels, so the bottoms stay crisp.
9. Stir the soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili crisp together and serve alongside for dipping while everything is still hot.
10. Cong you bing are sold from carts outside school gates across northern China, and the coil-then-flatten trick is the whole reason they shatter instead of chew. Hot water in the dough denatures some of the gluten, keeping it tender enough to laminate without a rolling pin fight, and the sesame oil roux does the work a European pastry would need cold butter for. Uncooked rounds freeze beautifully between parchment sheets, so a Sunday batch becomes ten minutes of after-school cooking all week.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 310 kcal
• Protein: 6g
• Fat: 16g
• Carbohydrates: 36g
• Fiber: 2g
• Sugar: 1g
• Sodium: 690mg