this is the very first guest post on this blog! charlotte, the author, and i share a long, beautiful friendship over our love and appreciation for food (among many, many other things). we first met in 6th grade in surburban minnesota! her culinary creativity constantly inspires my own. i’ve made this recipe of hers a few times now, devouring most of the batch immediately after making them. without further ado, i’ll let charlotte take it from here. i hope you love these shao bing as much as we do!
– erica
taiwanese shao bing, as told and adapted by charlotte
2008, with a currant pie 
2019, many pies later 
🥕🥕🥕 for halloween
while versions of this sesame flatbread abound throughout the chinese speaking world, most of my memories of shao bing 燒餅 are from summers spent in taiwan. there, shao bing are often served with a kind of fried cruller— you tiao 油條—sandwiched in between its flaky layers, then dunked in a steaming bowl of freshly pressed soy milk.
when i was younger, we would go to the neighborhood breakfast shop with my Ah Gong and Ah Ma, still shaking off the jet lag of a long international flight, sweating in the heat and humidity of the morning. we’d cram around one of the plastic tables ringed by round metal stools and order from the Lao Ban, watching him sling ladles of rice milk and flip rows of egg crepes at the front of the shop. everywhere the smell of frying dough, steaming xiao long bao, motorcycles, sun-on-asphalt. these little breakfast shops, once ubiquitous in taipei, have mostly given way to western-style cafes and bakeries.
but a few remain, and my family and i make a point to go every year. unable to travel to see family in taiwan this year, we’ve resorted to sighing longingly over old photos of past breakfasts, and occasionally attempting to recreate our favorites.
shao bing is one of my mother’s favorite breakfasts, and my sister and i endeavored to recreate them for mother’s day. i very loosely adapted this recipe from edwina at cooking in chinglish, incorporating sourdough discard rather than using instant yeast.
to serve
eat immediately after baking, for breakfast. we like them split open on the side with a scallion-flecked omelette nestled into the layers, or filled with heaps of fresh alfalfa sprouts and tomatoes and a dash of salt. honestly, they’re also pretty great plain.
serve with some freshly made peanut rice milk for a taste of a classic taiwanese breakfast.
bonus recipe: peanut rice milk
1/4 cup uncooked short grain white rice
1/2 cup peanuts, toasted
3 cups water
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
soak white rice 6-8 hours or overnight, then blend with peanuts and water until smooth. heat in a pan, stirring, until the milk begins to bubble and thicken. add sugar, and cook to desired consistency. tastes just as good iced as warm!
makes 2 servings
notes from erica
storage: in my experience, these don’t keep very well beyond a day. if you were to store them for later, i’d recommend underbaking them slightly, freezing them, and then popping them in a toaster oven for ~3-5 minutes to crisp them back up.
adjustments: as always, please adjust flour and water amounts based on the hydration of your starter.
oil: charlotte uses olive oil and i’ve tried both canola and vegetable oil. any of these work for a “neutral oil”.
sourdough discard sesame flatbread (taiwanese shaobing 燒餅)
formula
- 180 g all purpose flour
- 4 g sugar (1 tsp)
- 105 g warm to hot water
- 35 g sourdough starter discard (80% hydration)
- 13 g neutral oil (1 tbsp)
- 2 g salt (1/2 tsp)
- 35 g neutral oil (2.5 tbsp)
- 30 g all purpose flour
- 5 g cornstarch
- toasted white sesame seeds
- black sesame seeds (optional)
method
- mix flour, sugar, and 100 g water together in a medium sized bowl until it forms a cohesive dough. it should be pretty stiff. cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- with wet hands, mix in the remaining water and dough ingredients. knead well until it forms a soft, smooth dough, about 5-10 minutes by hand.
- cover and let rest on counter for at least 4 hours, and up to 12 hours.
- sift flour and cornstarch together in a small bowl.
- heat oil in a pan on medium heat until hot. stirring constantly, add the sifted mixture into the oil, until the paste is darkens slightly and is toasty smelling (mmmm), about 5-10 minutes.
- the paste should be smooth and spreadable, and should have the approximate consistency of tahini. if it is clumping, add more oil. if it seems too thin, add a little more flour.
- pour into a small bowl, and set aside to cool.
- preheat oven to 425°F.
- on a lightly floured surface, dump out your dough. flour your rolling pin, and roll out dough into a roughly 10 x 16 in rectangle.
- orient the rectangle such that the long side is facing you, and the shorter sides are on your left and right.
- leaving about 1/2 in at the top, spread the oil paste to cover the surface area of the rectangle. you could do this with a spatula or your fingers!
- like you would a cinnamon roll or a scallion pancake, slowly roll the dough up. pinch the seam at the top to close.
- use a bench knife to divide the roll into 6 even sections.
- take one chunk of dough. fold the dough so you can pinch the cut ends together, forming a seam. if it starts to come apart a little, no worries! repeat for each piece.
- take your first piece and orient it such that the seam side is up and is pointed towards you. using your rolling pin, flatten the dough it into an oval. the seam should be perpendicular to the rolling pin.
- then, create a little dough envelope by first folding the top third of the oval down, and then folding the bottom third of the oval up.
- repeat this process with each piece of dough until you have 6 dough envelopes.
- repeat this rolling and folding procedure a second time for each piece, making sure you are always rolling perpendicular to the seam and folding the seam side in.
- cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes to let the dough relax. in the meantime, prepare your sesame seed topping and line a large 18×13 in baking sheet or two smaller cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- take a roll of dough and press the smooth side into the sesame seeds. if the dough doesn't feel sticky, you can first brush or spritz the surface of the dough with a little bit of water before pressing into the seeds.
- with the sesame seed side facing up, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 5-6 in long, and 3 in wide. set the completed flatbread sesame-side face up onto the baking sheet.
- repeat with each piece of dough. these don't really spread, so don't worry about putting them close together.
- bake for about 12 minutes, until they start to get golden brown on top but before they turn fully golden.
- let cool on cooling rack for a couple minutes before digging in. to fill, slice along the side, or cut open with scissors.
i want to try this recipe but i have a question about your instructions. You say to mix flour, sugar and 100g water and then let it rest. But the ingredient list shows 105g water. Does the other 5 gram of hot water go in still with the sourdough, oil and salt? i’m still working out the math for 100% hydration 😀
Hi Jamie, it’s a really fun and delicious recipe! And yes, you’re right — the remaining 5 g of water goes in with the dough after the first 30 min rest. The dough is a bit stiff so wet hands and the extra bit of water help incorporate the levain, oil, salt, etc into the autolysed dough.