Chinese Flaky Pastry.
Two doughs, one wrapped in the other, rolled out and rolled up twice: a palm-sized 蛋黄酥 has dozens of layers that flake at a touch.
Chinese flaky pastry (酥皮) laminates two doughs instead of dough and butter. The outer 水油皮 is flour, water and lard (or oil) kneaded to a smooth, elastic dough: the water lets some gluten form so it can be rolled thin without tearing, the fat keeps it tender. The inner 油酥 is flour rubbed with lard and no water at all: no gluten forms (IX.9), so it is soft, short and crumbly. One is wrapped round the other — individually for each pastry (小包酥) or as one large sheet that is then cut (大包酥) — and the pair is rolled out into a long tongue, rolled up into a cylinder, turned, rolled out again and rolled up again.
Each roll-up and fold multiplies the alternating layers of water dough and oil dough, much as folds do in puff pastry (XXV.6). In the oven the water dough's water turns to steam and the lard fries the thin layers apart: a crisp pastry that shatters into flakes. Because the oil dough is plastic at room temperature, it needs no fridge; it does need resting (醒) between rolls so the water dough relaxes. When the layers show on the outside, cut through a rolled cylinder, it is 明酥 (visible layers, as in 荷花酥); hidden inside, 暗酥. The workshop rolls and folds.
Below: the layers of oil dough after the number of roll-and-fold rounds you choose (each round folded in three, exact multiplication), and a teaching index of how short and crumbly the pastry is from the share of oil dough you choose.
- Make 水油皮 and 油酥.
- Wrap and roll to build layers.
- Choose the oil-dough share for texture.
- Tell 明酥 from 暗酥.
Two doughs, rolled and rested
Two rounds of rolling and folding give 9 layers of oil dough; three give 27. The typical recipe — water dough of 200 g flour, 80 g water and 50 g lard round an oil dough of 150 g flour and 75 g lard — puts the oil dough at about 41 % of the pastry: flaky and tender. More oil dough makes a shorter, more crumbly pastry that is harder to roll; less makes crisper, more distinct but chewier layers.
Method for 小包酥 (e.g. 蛋黄酥): make both doughs and rest them 20 minutes; divide each into equal pieces (say 25 g water dough, 15 g oil dough); wrap each oil dough ball in a water dough piece, seam down; roll each into a long tongue, roll up from the short end, rest 10 minutes covered; turn 90°, roll into a tongue again, roll up again, rest; press flat, roll into a round, wrap the filling (red bean paste and a salted egg yolk for 蛋黄酥), brush with egg yolk, sprinkle sesame, and bake at 180 °C for 25–30 minutes until golden. Keep the doughs covered throughout — a dry skin cracks and breaks the layers.
Make a few 小包酥 with two rounds of rolling up and a few with only one. Bake them and cut them across to count and compare the layers.
Terms
- 水油皮
- Water-oil dough: flour, water and lard, elastic and rollable.
- 油酥
- Oil dough: flour rubbed with lard, no water, short.
- 小包酥 / 大包酥
- Wrapping each pastry separately / one large sheet cut later.
- 明酥 / 暗酥
- Layers visible outside / hidden inside.
Sources
- A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.
- H. McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, 2nd ed., Scribner, 2004.