The best scallion pancakes I've eaten came from the freezer case of the Asian grocer. They had to be cooked from frozen because they were incredibly stick and gooey if thawed. But they had excellent texture, flakiness and flavor. These too are scarce on restaurant menus in SLC.
When I've made them following recipes they've been gummy and thick. Some things I've learned over the years is that this is a form of laminated dough. But for my skill at least, or maybe there's a problem with the recipe which I lean more towards, those that attempt extra layers through another round of rolling tend to be gummy. An example of this sort of recipe.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/04/extra-flaky-scallion-pancakes-recipe.html
The picture doesn't look all that flakey either but the angle hides this a bit.
Most recipes use a boiling water dough in the style of choux paste. This gives you a pre-cooked flour so they're more forgiving about undercooking. This tends to yield a well hydrated soft dough that you can move on with pretty quickly.
My sources for today's efforts come from Strictly Dumpling, again. I've rather enjoyed his channel the last couple of months.
I was intrigued by his blend of water temperatures. And his bacon version really appeals to me too. His double kneading was also something I don't recall encountering before. OK, his explanation of the effects of his massage are ill informed. Jeff Smith also uses a mixture of boiling and cold water in his recipe so that's another source.
This version has some things that appealed to me. Again, the water isn't boiling, she's kneading by machine, has two kneadings. The scallion oil was an excellent idea. She also uses a fan or accordion folding technique I want to try.
Both of these use more water than you'll often see. I couldn't get that to work. It was much more batter than dough though I get that it needs to be loose and potentially sticky. I incorporated extra flour. The resting time is more than just gluten relaxation, you also finish hydrating. And the second kneading is necessary to get the gluten development and the dough can actually be handled after the rest.
Making Scallion Oil
Rolling the first time. Shape isn't particularly important for this step as long as it's fairly evenly shaped. I've spread a blend of scallion and sesame oil. The kosher salt is readily visible. It needed to be more. This isn't particularly thin either.
Roll it jelly roll style. Smoosh it together a bit.
I liked what she did in the China Eats video where she rolled the coil from both ends and then stacked them to give you more layers.
Set that off to rest. In the next pancake, I'm trying out the accordion or fan fold. I really need to chop the scallions much thinner.
For the pancakes three and four, I've minced over the scallions for a finer flatter effect.
This is pancake #2. Note the whole circles. Note also that the center tends to loose scallions as their large size catches in the rolling and moves more towards the outer edges. These are about 7-8 inches across, just for size reference. Whole scallions tend to pierce their layers, at least at the size I cut. This is something I've noticed in all my prior attempts at this dish as well.
Pancake #1, traditional mehtods. I've got some layers and some flakiness, not a lot.
See next post