Spring Onion (Scallions) Pancakes

These crispy pancakes are a popular dim sum dish and make a great snack/appertiser that can be made from just a small number of cupboard standby ingredients. There are versions that are made from a yeast risen dough but given the difference in time required for rising I prefer these no rise one. Although called a pancake, it is closer to a fried bread and is best served with a dipping sauce. This scaled dough recipe can be used to make other dim sum dishes by making pockets of dough stuffed with a variety of ingredients such as tofu and veggies and then fried to make a kind of chinese pasty.

These pancakes can be frozen before frying and then cooked from frozen in a frying pan which is ideal as this recipe makes 6 large pancakes.

Spring Onion (Scallion) Pancakes (makes 6 pancakes) 
Vegan, vegetarian, dairy free

Ingredients
300g Bread flour plus extra for dusting and rolling out
350ml Boiling Water
6 tbs Spring onion, scallions, finely sliced
1tsp Salt
1tsp Sesame oil
1tbs Vegetable oil plus extra for frying

Method

• Sift the flour into a bowl and pour in the boiling water whilst stirring continuously to form a ball of dough. Leave to cool for 20 mins. 
• Take the dough out of the bowl and place on a well floured work surface. The dough should be damp and but not too wet or firm. Add more flour or water as you knead the dough, if required. Knead to form a smooth dough for 5 mins.
• Leave to rest for 10 mins then knead again for 10mins to form a smooth and elastic dough. Cut the dough into 6 pieces and roll out each of pieces to 0.5cm/1/4" thickness. 
• Pour the 1tbs of vegetable oil and 1tsp sesame oil into the bowl and mix and then brush over each rolled out dough piece.
• Sprinkle each pancake with salt and 1/6th of the sliced spring onion (1). Roll the pancake up towards you to form a tube (2). Then roll up this tube to make a snail shape (3). Flatten this out (4) and roll out into a round with a diameter of around 15cm/6cm (5). 

1) Brush with oil & sprinkle with salt & spring onion

2) Roll up the pancake

3) After rolling up roll again to form a snail shape

4) Flatten out the snail

5) Roll out pancake

• If freezing, stop at this point and wrap each pancake separately in clingfilm/plastic wrap or pile up and separate with parchment paper and then wrap in plastic wrap. The frozen pancakes can then be cooked as described below.
• Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry each pancake over a medium heat until golden brown on each side. Remove from the pan and place on a kitchen paper to drain off any excess oil.  Serve whilst still warm.