[00:00] My absolute favorite American food is&nbsp; pancakes. Whenever I travel to the USA,&nbsp;&nbsp; it will be the very first meal on the very first&nbsp; day. Berries, lemon, chocolate, love it all.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:13] But as much as I enjoy pancakes, there's also a&nbsp; problem. Having one stack of pancake with just&nbsp;&nbsp; one flavors? Sometimes… it can be a bit much. And&nbsp; same with many American restaurant foods: for me&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:28] at least, many dishes are often centered around&nbsp; one big thing. And halfway eating through it,&nbsp;&nbsp; without a change of flavor, sometimes it gets&nbsp; a bit monotonous. Maybe that's just my Chinese&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:42] mindset, but wouldn't it be great if instead of&nbsp; one big cheeseburger or one stack of pancakes…&nbsp;&nbsp; having multiple burgers with different flavors or&nbsp; many pancakes with different tastes? Well, Sichuan&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:57] may have an answer to that question. In China,&nbsp; we don't have anything exactly the same as the&nbsp;&nbsp; American style pancake, of course, but in Sichuan,&nbsp; there's something that comes pretty close.&nbsp;&nbsp; It’s called danhonggao or egg baked cake. While&nbsp; there's no milk, the rest are just basically like&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:14] an American style pancake. It's a mix of flour,&nbsp; egg, leavening agent, and… not much else. But&nbsp;&nbsp; unlike American pancakes, the Sichuan one can be&nbsp; stuffed with a whole array of different feelings&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:27] with flavors ranging from sweet to savory to&nbsp; spicy or all of them combined. So in this video,&nbsp;&nbsp; we'll show you how to make danhonggao just like&nbsp; how you will see it on a afternoon street cart&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:41] outside of a school in Chengdu, fillings and all.&nbsp; And besides that, we'll also take those fillings&nbsp;&nbsp; and put them onto some American-style silver&nbsp; dollar pancake and see if that works too.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:54] But let's go over the danhonggao first.&nbsp; And step one in making danhonggao, is,&nbsp;&nbsp; of course, the batter. Now, traditionally, this&nbsp; batter uses Chinese laomian, which is sourdough&nbsp;&nbsp; or natural yeast, and then adds baking soda to&nbsp; balance out the acidity and leaven the pancake.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:11] But for this recipe, I just want to keep things&nbsp; simple and do a modern Sichuan homecooking style,&nbsp;&nbsp; which instead of Chinese Laomian, we'll be using&nbsp; a mix of yeast, baking soda, and baking powder.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:25] So, first we'll melt 100g brown sugar with 190&nbsp; gram hot water. Stir until the sugar is all&nbsp;&nbsp; dissolved. And when the water gets back down to&nbsp; room temperature, dissolve 2g or a half teaspoon&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:40] of osmotolerant yeast into it. Then, add two eggs&nbsp; and whisk well until no stray strands remained.&nbsp;&nbsp; Then sift in 200 g of AP flour, mixing it by&nbsp; folding from the bottom and cut it back down&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:53] onto the center just like how you would mix&nbsp; a pancake batter. Once it's basically all&nbsp;&nbsp; mixed in like this, strain the batter through a&nbsp; sieve just to make sure there's no big clumps.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:05] Then cover and set this aside and let it ferment&nbsp; for an hour. Then 1 hour later, come back, mix 2g&nbsp;&nbsp; baking soda and 1g baking powder with 10g water.&nbsp; Fold in our batter and then it's ready to make&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:20] some danhonggao. Real quick though, quick aside on&nbsp; equipment. For this one, you'll want the smallest&nbsp;&nbsp; possible pan you can get your hands on. I have a&nbsp; little copper pen here that I got online, which is&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:34] the pan in making danhonggao. It's 15 cm wide and&nbsp; smaller at the bottom. Chris was saying that a&nbsp;&nbsp; Blini pan might work, but I also tried my hands at&nbsp; this, the Vietnamese and Thai breakfast egg pan.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:50] It's slightly bigger, but it just works great as&nbsp; well. And even our 6 inch cast iron skillet works.&nbsp;&nbsp; But because the surface is a little bit more&nbsp; porous, so it will end up being a little bit&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:03] more oily and slightly less crispy on the edge.&nbsp; But it's just subtle, you can totally use it.&nbsp;&nbsp; Besides that, you will also want a pair of&nbsp; tweezers, a folded paper towel that's dipped&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:15] in a minuscule amount of oil, and preferably a&nbsp; rack to lift our pan slightly above the stove. So,&nbsp;&nbsp; heat on medium low, then heat up the pan. And once&nbsp; you can feel some warmth coming through, lift your&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:29] pan up and take that oiled paper towel and give it&nbsp; a wipe. Then scoop in three tablespoons worth of&nbsp;&nbsp; batter and quickly give it a swirl to create&nbsp; that signature crispy thin ring on the edge.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:41] Then let the batter evenly cover the pan. Cover&nbsp; for 30 seconds. Then we can add in our filling.&nbsp;&nbsp; For this one, we'll just keep it super basic&nbsp; to just show you the techniques. So, we'll&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:53] just be adding in some Laoganma, which is a legit&nbsp; feeling that they will use in Sichuan. Then cover&nbsp;&nbsp; it back up and bake for another 30 to 45 seconds.&nbsp; Remember to move the pan around to make sure it&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:06] heats evenly when baking. Once you see the edge&nbsp; is slightly golden brown, using one end of your&nbsp;&nbsp; tweezer gently slide it in between the edge and&nbsp; the pan. Loosen it bottom, then fold it over onto&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:19] the filling. So then now we can just take it out,&nbsp; put it onto your serving plate or alternatively a&nbsp;&nbsp; paper box for that ultimate street food vibe. But&nbsp; we do definitely need to expand on those feelings,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:33] so this is what we whipped up today. Besides the&nbsp; Laoganma that we just showed you, we also made&nbsp;&nbsp; nuts and sugar, which is basically the OG sweet&nbsp; feeling. Minced pork with Zhacai, that's another&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:45] classic. Minced pork with sour pickled long beans,&nbsp; chicken with chili oil, and cream with pig floss…&nbsp;&nbsp; and a fusion-y one with the Thai Nam Phrik&nbsp; Pao chili jam, some mayo, and more pig floss.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:00] So we'll show you these three right now but if you&nbsp; want to know how to make all seven check out the&nbsp;&nbsp; written recipes in description box. So let's&nbsp; start with the savory one - pork and zhacai.&nbsp;&nbsp; To make it, just take 100 grams of minced pork&nbsp; and toss an quarter teaspoon each starch and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:16] soy sauce together with a teaspoon white pepper.&nbsp; Mix well and set aside. Then mince 20g of zhacai&nbsp;&nbsp; preserved mustard greens into half centimeter bits&nbsp; and set aside. Now, as always, longyau. Get your&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:30] wok piping hot, heat off and add in one heaping&nbsp; tablespoons of oil. Then heat back on medium. Toss&nbsp;&nbsp; in that 100g of minced pork. Break it up with&nbsp; your spatula and patiently fry until slightly&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:44] golden brown and starting to release a little bit&nbsp; of oil. At this point, toss in the minced zhacai.&nbsp;&nbsp; Fry the two together for about 1 minute. Then heat&nbsp; off and out. Filling number one, done. Then next,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:58] let's show you the OG sweet filling. This sweet&nbsp; filling you not only see at danhonggao, but also&nbsp;&nbsp; in sweet Baozis or Cantonese deep fried flaky&nbsp; dumplings. So to make it, all we need is sugar,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:11] toasted peanuts, and toasted sesame seeds. So&nbsp; first, toss 10 grams of your toasted peanuts into&nbsp;&nbsp; a mortar. Roughly pound it into half centimeter&nbsp; bits. Then add in 20g granulated sugar into it.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:24] Quickly pound it together with the peanut. Then&nbsp; finally add in that 10g toasted sesame seeds.&nbsp;&nbsp; Another quick pound to break the sesame kernels.&nbsp; And this is it: filling number two, done.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:37] And finally, we'll have cream – naiyou&nbsp; - and pig floss. And there's something I&nbsp;&nbsp; should probably back up and explain. I call it&nbsp; “cream”, naiyou, but the cream as they call it&nbsp;&nbsp; in old school danhonggao was actually meringue&nbsp; that’s steamed to set. But as whipped cream&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:54] got more and more popular, it became the “cream”&nbsp; that you will get at many stands. And personally,&nbsp;&nbsp; I prefer whipped cream to meringue, so this is&nbsp; what we'll be using today. That said though, both&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:06] me and Chris hate the stuff from the bottle. So,&nbsp; we will actually whipping our cream from scratch.&nbsp;&nbsp; So, to make whipped cream, here we have 250g&nbsp; or 1 cup of cold heavy cream. Add in 1 tbsp of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:19] granulated sugar and teaspoon salt. First on low&nbsp; to incorporate our sugar. Then, turn to medium&nbsp;&nbsp; and whisk till we have a soft peaks. Then add in&nbsp; 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and keep on whipping&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:34] it on high until we have a stiff peaks. And now&nbsp; the whipped cream is ready to be used, keep it in&nbsp;&nbsp; the fridge until you are about to assembled. As&nbsp; for pig floss, you should be able to find it at&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:46] Asian supermarkets or online because it's a very&nbsp; popular snack/ ingredients and many parts in Asia.&nbsp;&nbsp; And now we have these fillings ready, so let's&nbsp; make a couple more meringue. So, same as we showed&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:59] you earlier in the video, heat up the pan, scoop&nbsp; in three tablespoons worth of batter in, cover&nbsp;&nbsp; and let it bake on medium low for 30 seconds.&nbsp; Then, put in the minced pork with zhacai. Cover&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:12] and continue to bake for another 30 to 45 seconds.&nbsp; Carefully loosen the crispy edge, fold it up, and&nbsp;&nbsp; take it out. Now for the mixed sugar and nut one.&nbsp; We'll put the feelings in after it's baked for 45&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:26] seconds because sweet feelings goes in later.&nbsp; Then a final 30 second bake and take it out.&nbsp;&nbsp; As for the whipped cream, it needs to go in at&nbsp; the very very end. So, at the 1 and a half minute&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:40] mark, shut off the heat, loosen the edge, transfer&nbsp; the pancake to a plate. Then, sprinkle in about&nbsp;&nbsp; one tablespoon of pig floss and scoop or pipe&nbsp; in your whipped cream, about 1 tbsp worth.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:53] Then, fold it up. And this is done. And now you've&nbsp; got your various assortments of pancake fillings&nbsp;&nbsp; just like how you would see on street carts in&nbsp; Sichuan. So, then it comes to our other question.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:06] Will those fillings work on American-style&nbsp; silver dollar pancakes? Let's find out. So,&nbsp;&nbsp; we'll have three categories of the feelings, which&nbsp; is: (1) definitely works on pancake, (2) kind&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:18] of works on pancake, (3) not really works on&nbsp; pancake. First up, the zhacai and minced pork.&nbsp;&nbsp; So, for the zhacai and minced pork one, I think&nbsp; it belongs to “kind of works on pancake”. It’s&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:31] slightly drier in this context with the&nbsp; open faced silver dollar pancake. Next one.&nbsp;&nbsp; This is the cream and pig floss. I&nbsp; would assume that it will really work.
[10:47] Because whipped cream is already a&nbsp; super classic topping for pancakes&nbsp;&nbsp; and now you're just topping it with some extra&nbsp; tasty bits. Of course, it will work on pancake.
[11:01] Now, this is the nuts and&nbsp; sugar one. Smells good though.
[11:13] So the nuts and sugar one uh they taste like two&nbsp; completely separate things. So yeah, it doesn't&nbsp;&nbsp; work. I think it works in Danhonggao because&nbsp; you kind of bake it a little bit more, so it&nbsp;&nbsp; slightly melts. It's more moist. So for this one&nbsp; that doesn't work. And now we have our Lao Gan Ma.
[11:37] Lao Gan Ma definitely works. Um my one suggestion&nbsp; will be kind of spread it out a little bit so that&nbsp;&nbsp; you don't just bite into one big chunks of&nbsp; Lao Gan Ma. But yeah, definitely works. Great.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:49] Okay. Now we have uh chicken with chili oil,&nbsp;&nbsp; which is poached chicken breast coated&nbsp; up in a classic Sichuan liangban&nbsp;&nbsp; chili oil sauce. It's a very classic one in&nbsp; Sichuan and it's one of the signature toppings&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:07] in that very popular stand outside of Chengdu.&nbsp; So now let's see how it works on pancakes. As much as the chili oil with chicken is awesome&nbsp; within Danhonggao, somehow in this context,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:23] it kind of works but not as good as like the&nbsp; really works one like Laoganma or cream and&nbsp;&nbsp; pig floss. So my guess is that if you shred your&nbsp; chicken into strings, it will work a lot better.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:38] And this is the minced pork with sour pickle&nbsp; long beans. Another classics for Danhonggao,&nbsp;&nbsp; let's see how this is on silver dollar.
[12:52] The mince pork with pickle long beans really hits&nbsp; that great sweet savory spot. So definitely works.&nbsp;&nbsp; I think it works better than the minced pork with&nbsp; zhacai is because pickled long beans, somehow,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:05] there's a little bit more moisture. So when you&nbsp; bite into it, there's like a little bit of a&nbsp;&nbsp; pouch of flavor. All right, our last one, the Thai&nbsp; Nam Phrik Pao chili jam with mayo and pig floss.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:18] Um, we actually make this flavor&nbsp; of toast in Thailand pretty often&nbsp;&nbsp; and it's also a classic street snack flavor&nbsp; there as well. So, let's see if this works.
[13:37] Yeah, this one works, because similar reason as&nbsp; Laoganma. It's a sauce, but you kind of want to&nbsp;&nbsp; spread it out a little bit more so that you're&nbsp; not biting into big chunks. So, going back to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:50] our earlier question, do these fillings work&nbsp; on American style silver dollar pancakes?&nbsp;&nbsp; And I think the answer is yes, they work&nbsp; and works pretty well. And looking at it,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:04] maybe we just reverse engineered Blini?&nbsp; Maybe, but uh with Sichuan flavors.&nbsp;&nbsp; Anyway, this is a super fun Sichuan street&nbsp; snack… I hope you can get your hands on and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:19] try it no matter on an actual Danhonggao or an&nbsp; American-style pancake. So check out the recipe&nbsp;&nbsp; in description box. A big thank you for everyone&nbsp; that's supporting us on Patreon and subscribe for&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:31] more fun Chinese cooking videos. This is classic&nbsp; and popular for a reason. ...Hayek?
[14:48] You have some on your nose, dude.