How to Make Scallion Pancakes

I learned to make scallion pancakes from one of my pre-school Chinese teachers. When I was in elementary school I used to host a week long Chinese summer camp at my house. My pre-school teacher, Tien, and some of my friends who were in the Chinese Immersion Program with me, would come over to my house and we would practice our Chinese through activities like calligraphy, skits, and making Chinese food. Scallion pancakes were a huge hit with us kids and we would make them every year. To this day, these memories are very dear to me and I still love this crispy, salty snack.

Scallion pancakes are super easy to make and absolutely delicious! They have many slight variations, but this is just the method I remember learning.

Photo creds to Will for taking this beautiful photo that is much better than any of mine.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup warm water

• 1 bunch green onions (scallions), chopped

• Oil (canola or vegetable)

• Salt

Note: This recipe makes 2 good sized scallion pancakes. Feel free to scale up the recipe as needed!

Step 1: Make the dough

Pour 1 cup flour into a bowl. Gradually drizzle 1/2 cup warm water into the flour, stirring to combine with chopsticks or your hand. Knead the dough until it is smooth in texture (~5 minutes). It should look something like this:

Wrap the dough in cling wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour.

Step 2: Divide the dough

Once the dough has rested, roll it out into a log shape and divide into two pieces.

Step three: Roll it out and top

Take one of the pieces and on a lightly floured surface, roll it out into a rectangle until it is almost thin enough to see through (but not breaking). Dip your fingers into the oil and spread an even layer up to the edge. Sprinkle salt to taste. I personally like mine to be generously salted, but if you aren't a big salt person go light or even hold off and just salt at the end.

Next take a big handful of green onion and sprinkle it evenly over the dough. I also like my pancakes chocked full of green onion, but you can decide how much you want!

Step 4: Roll it up

If you've ever made cinnamon rolls the next step will look familiar. From the bottom of the rectangle, roll the dough up as tightly as you can. You will be left with a long rope.

Step 5: Coil it

Just like with a cinnamon roll, shape the rope into a tight coil, tucking the bottom underneath. Repeat steps 3-5 with the other piece(s) of dough. Let the dough coils rest for another 10-15 minutes.

Step 6: Flatten it

Once the dough has rested, set the coil on a lightly floured surface and press down with your hand to flatten it. Then take a rolling pin and roll it out to your desired thickness. I find that the flatter the better because flat pancakes get crispier, but as long as it's flat enough to cook through you should be fine.

Step 7: Cook it

Once your pancakes are flat, heat some oil in a nonstick frying pan over medium high. Place a pancake into the oil and fry until golden brown (they don't take long to cook, maybe 3-4 minutes). Flip it and cook on the other side. Set off to the side and repeat with other pancake(s).

Step 8: Cut it up, dip, & enjoy!

Your pancakes are hot and ready to eat! Cut them up into slices for easier eating. You can dip them in whatever you want. I made a dip out of a combination of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and chili oil (on the side so it wasn't too spicy for Will).

Bon appetit!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you end up making scallion pancakes be sure and send me a picture. And if you want to subscribe to my blog posts you can do so on the right sidebar.

Have fun!

- Evan