Sijing sesame pancakes with sweetened lard fillings a favorite with locals

Sesame pancakes are sold everywhere in China. Whether fried or baked, salty or sweet, with meat fillings or bean paste, the cakes usually use dough and pastry as major ingredients, and are sold throughout the year.

Sijing sesame pancakes with sweetened lard fillings, however, are seasonal local snacks that are available in the market only from lichun, or spring begins, in early February, to guyu, or grain rain, in late April.

The ingredients to make the local pancakes include flour, pastry, lard, sugar, sesames and maltose.

The flour is first of all added with some yeast, then mixed with warm water to undergo fermentation.

The paste is then added to the fermented dough and the mixed dough will be divided into about a dozen bumps. Then, sweetened lard is added into each bump and they are kneaded into a cake. Sesame seeds are put on each cake.

The oven is heated to 180 degrees Celsius and the pancakes are put on a plate into the oven. When the cakes turn golden, the temperature of the oven is adjusted to around 150 degrees and they are heated until they become crispy.