Spring Pancake (Chun Bing)

Spring is my favorite season around the year and I love to start the new year with a lovely green spring pancake by adding spinach in the dough of a regular Chinese Mandarin pancake (also known as duck pancake).

This type of pancake can be served with lots of ingredients, cold salad like potato salad, vegetable salad or beef salad or stir fried dishes like moo shu pork, yu xiang pork and peking shredded pork.

It is quite easy to make this peking duck pancake at home. The only key step is to make a super soft dough. When the dough is soft enough, we can easily roll out to a thin and larger wrapper. Boiling hot water is the most important ingredients to make the dough soft enough. Using hot boiling water in a dough is called as “烫面” in Chinese. It can help to make the dough soft and shorten the cooking time. We also cook Northern style Chinese scallion pancake with this method.  Previously I tried a combination of hot water and cold water. But after several times of testing, even with hot water only, the pancake can be chewy enough. But if you prefer a chewier texture, you can use room temperature water.

We usually make two pancakes one time because this can create a lovely comparing texture in one pancake. The outside part is chewier while the inside is super soft. So you can easily roll it up.

In addition, I introduced a steamed version of spring pancake which is super super easy and the softest in this post.

Cook’s Note

The softness and chewiness of the pancake can be adjusted by water temperature and the fire for frying.

• Want a softer texture: using slightly more hot water + fry at medium fire with lid cover.
• Want a chewier texture, using room temperature partially water + fry at medium to low fire with lid uncovered.

The pancake must be stored either in a steamer or cover with a clean cloth to avoid losing too much water and keep warm. If they are cooled before serving, re-steam with 3-4 minutes.

Instructions

Make the dough

Add salt and oil in a large pot of water. Blanch spinach in hot boiling water for 10 seconds.

Transfer out and add 1/2 cup hot boiling water. Blend until smooth. Then make sure the spinach color water is still hot, otherwise try to re-heat it.

Strain the water only in the flour, stir well. And then set aside for cooling. Once the flour is not hot. Knead until smooth dough. Covered and rest for 20 minutes.

Make the wrapper

Shape the dough into a long circle , just like what we did in making dumpling wrappers and then divide the dough into 24 similar portions. If you want larger pancakes, divide into 18 portions.

Take one portion out and flatten. Brush oil on the surface. Then overlay with another small portion. Roll the two pieces together to a 12-15 diameter pancake.

Brush a small layer of oil on a pan (only a small amount needed) and fry over medium fire until one side is brownly dotted and then turn over and fry the other side. If you want to pancake to be super soft, cover the lid to reduce the water evaporation.

Tear the two pieces apart when the pancake is still warm. Then place in a steamer to keep warm.

Serve with moo shu pork, Peking style shredded pork, roasted duck, or vegetable salad.