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Beijing Egg Filled Pancake Recipe

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Beijing's Most Popular Breakfast

If you have joined our Beijing Breakfast Food Tour, you already know why our favorite stop is visiting the He family’s Egg Filled Pancake Shop – also know as Jidan Guan Bing. These small, savory pancake-like pastries filled with egg and flavored with chili (or soybean paste) are a lesser-known foodie delight, and lucky for us they’ve shared their family recipe.

Those of you who have seen these pancakes being made in Beijing know they use a magical cooking device. The top surface is used for frying, which also slides open to reveal a charcoal oven. But don’t worry, we’ve adapted the recipe to be prepared with common equipment (i.e, a frying pan) which should get you by until you visit Beijing again.

Makes 3 Pancakes

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup warm water

Salt and pepper (to your liking)

1 Tbsp of cooking oil, plus more for frying (we always use canola oil, but soy or peanut oil also works well)

1 Tbsp low gluten flour (cake flour)

1 Tbsp chili paste or soybean paste

3-6 lettuce leaves

3 eggs

1 Spring onion (optional)

Soybean paste and chili paste to serve

Directions

In a large bowl, mix all-purpose flour and warm water.
When everything is fully incorporated, knead until a smooth dough is formed. Cover and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.
Heat a small fry-pan over low heat and add 1Tbsp of oil. After the oil is hot, add the low gluten flour (cake flour) and stir well. Heat for about 1 minute until its cooked (it shouldn’t smell like raw flour). Transfer into a separate bowl and let it cool for handling.
Roll the smooth dough (that sat for 30 minutes) with your hands on a flat surface until it forms a log. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces.
Take one piece of dough and use a rolling pin to roll it flat and long. It should be about 4 inches wide. Evenly spread a heaping teaspoon of the low-gluten-flour-oil mixture (the cooled low-gluten flour from step 3) onto the surface of the rolled out dough.
Fold the dough in half, bottom to top, to create a long thin strip. Then, using your hands, roll the dough up from bottom to top like a cinnamon roll. Place the rolled-up dough upright on a flat surface.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the remaining dough and let the pieces sit for at least 5 minutes. If you are making a a lot of pancakes, keep a damp cloth over the resting dough babies so they don’t dry out while you assemble the rest.
Press down on each piece of dough, and then roll the dough out into a circular pancakes – they shouldn’t be too thick!
In a separate bowl, crack open an egg and add salt, pepper, and chopped spring onion to your liking. Beat the egg until the yolk and whites are incorporated.
Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium heat and evenly coat the pan with cooking oil. You can test if it’s hot enough by dropping a pinch of flour into the oil, it should sizzle immediately. Once hot, fry one side of a pancake for 30-60 seconds.
Flip the pancake over and watch as it inflates. Using a chopstick, carefully pierce an opening into the top layer of the pancake. Pour the egg batter into the pancake, and let it cook.
When the egg is halfway done, flip it once more and cook until crispy.
Optional: For additional crispiness, bake the pancakes in an oven for 5 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius (350 degrees F). If you’re serving a group of people, this is a great way to have them all come out hot at the same time.
Top each pancake with some chili or soybean paste and a lettuce leaf.
Fold like a taco and enjoy!

Watch our Beijing Egg Filled Pancake Recipe

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