Steamed Scallion Bread （花卷）

Believe it or not, oven is not a popular kitchen item in China where I am from. One of the most used cooking method is to steam. The water bath essentially made the food moist and according to the yins and yans of our belief, healthier to the body. You may have heard of bun which is getting popular here in the states and you can even get it in stop n shop nowadays. But steamed scallion bread might just be your favorite chinese dimsum after you try this recipe as my friend Linda and Susan might tell you after our intense 5 hour chinese dimsum cookout.

The process is quite similiar to making a bread - you proof some dough and add in the scallion before cooking them. The only difference is really steaming instead of baking. If my 7-year-old can make it, you sure can too!

For the dough

1/4 cup water to dissove 4 tsp of dry yeast

milk 1 cup (warm)

Sugar 4 tbsp

Flour (preferrably Korean flour for a fluffy texture) 5 cups

Lard or Butter 3 tbsp

baking powder 6 tsp

salt 1 tsp

For the filling

Sesame oil 4 tbsp

Diced scallion 4 cups

Salt 4 tsp

I used a bread machine to make the dough, first put in the liquids and then the dry ingredients. Set the program to "dough" and let it run its course, about 90 minutes and the dough will double in size.

Take the dough out and put to a floured surface. Roll it out using a rolling pin to about 10 by 10 inches. Then fold the flattened dough twice. Cover it with a damped paper towel and let it rise again for about 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half and start working with one of them. Roll it out as flat as you can to about 1/4 inch think. cut the flat in half and brush each half with seseame oil and then sprinkle on about 1 tsp of salt. Place about 1 cup of scallion on each of the half and then roll up the sheets from the long end like a jelly roll. Cut the roll into 2 inch pieces like below. And repeating for the remaining dough until you get about 64 pieces in total.

Take two pieces and place them on top of each other -

Using a chop stick, push down in the middle as such -

Take the two ends and wrap them as so -

You will then get a nice blooming "flower" bread -

Once done for each of the pieces, steam them in a steamer for about 15 minutes and done!