Following on from our recipe and video for Shen-Bin 牛肉餡餅 is this Tong-Yo-Bin, which simply means “spring onion, oil pancake”. These pancakes are a great side dish, a bread which in other cuisines might be substituted by nan bread or garlic bread. If you follow Joanne’s method properly you will have a multi-layered flaky pancake that is not doughy, but is crispy and breaks into flakes which you can dip or eat alongside the rest of your meal. Also once the pancakes are prepared you can store the uncooked 蔥油餅 pancakes in the fridge or freeze them to be fried at a later date.
As mentioned previously we made the dough just like for the for the Shen-Bin 牛肉餡餅 where some dough was left over. I will now go through the ingredients and method.
The ingredients 食材 are as follows;
- 500g plain flour
- 1 Chinese bowl of spring onions (scallions), chopped
- 1 tbsp of sesame seeds
- 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

spring onion (scallion) pancake, looking good
The method, the pastry / bread 作法;
- first ‘burn’ the flour – to the 500g flour add 150ml of boiling water
- stir this in with your chopsticks – it’s hot!
- once cooler you can mix it in with your hands
- then add 150ml of cold water, bit by bit, perhaps 1/4 at a time
- when mixed thoroughly take out of the bowl and knead it on a flour covered worktop, using the ‘3 shining principle’ it will be well kneaded when your hands, the bread and the worktop are all ‘shining clean’!
- make a ball and cover this dough with cling film, we’ll come back to it later
Prepare and Cook
- flatten out a piece of dough about the size off your fist, roll it until it’s a circle of about 15cm or 6 inches
- spread 1 tbsp of vegetable oil of your choice over the surface
- add the chopped scallion/spring onion
- sprinkle the sesame seeds over the surface
- roll the pancake into a cylinder, then will this roll make it into a circle like a caterpillar rolling into a circle
- now get your rolling pin and flatten out this circle into a pancake again
- add oil to your frying pan, about 2 tbsp
- use a medium heat
- when the oil is ready add the spring onion pancake 蔥油餅
- when golden turn over, turn again to ensure crispiness
- serve it as a side dish, it’s great with food that has lots of sauce
As usual Joanne has recorded a cooking video so you can follow the exact method step by step, as she prepares the scallion pancakes. It’s especially good to see the rolling and folding technique, which if you are in a rush, you can skip the video to about 1 minute and just watch that bit!
Taiwanese style spring onion pancakes 蔥油餅 cooking video
Stay tuned for more help, advice, cooking and shopping! The next recipe will be raspberry smoothie and jam.
10 comments
Annie says:
Aug 1, 2011
it looks so yummy
krapula says:
May 31, 2013
thanks for posting this delicious recipe
jj.lymm says:
May 31, 2013
If that helps its my pleasure, I’m happy to share
janine says:
Jun 30, 2014
your nephew is so cute…I liked it when you told him to blow on the pancake to cool it down, he was blowing on it for ages! so sweet..going to make them tomorrow…love your videos!
jj.lymm says:
Jul 3, 2014
Yes, this kind of home-made thing is always a good activity to share with the kids. I hope your Spring Onion Pancakes turn out to be delicious!
Judy says:
Dec 23, 2014
Hi Joanne, I tried to make this today.. I decided to half the recipe, but it seemed that the dough was a bit hard. Should I have added more water? If so, what temperature? Thanks!
jj.lymm says:
Dec 23, 2014
it could be you didn’t fold the dough enough to make the layers, or not enough oil in the dough. good luck
Premiers contacts | wasabi pea says:
Dec 1, 2015
[…] Good recipe on this website: http://taiwanduck.com/how-to-make-taiwanese-style-spring-onion-pancakes/ […]
lune says:
Jun 15, 2016
Hi Joanne , can you give me the sauce recipe please ?
thanks.
mark says:
Jun 17, 2016
soy sauce, teaspoon of sesame oil, half teaspoon of sugar and half teaspoon or mirin sweet rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of vinegar. I also always add a bit of chilli seed sauce as described elsewhere on the site