【夜读河北(英文版)】赵县“三宝”之一——薛家烧饼

Xue’s Sesame Pancake is one of the famous “Three Treasures” in Zhao County and also named as “puff pancake” or “stone pagoda pancake” for the reason that the cook once lived near the stone pagoda. With a history of nearly 200 years, the skills of making sesame pancake, the typical local food in Zhao County, have been taught through eight generations of Xue’s Family.

 “薛记烧饼”是赵县有名的“三宝”之一，俗称“油酥烧饼”，又叫“石塔烧饼”，因打烧饼的主人居住在赵州陀罗尼经幢(俗称石塔)脚下而得名。它是赵县独有的风味小吃，系赵县石塔村薛家8代祖传，距今已有近200年的历史。

Every five pancakes are wrapped in grease proof paper. They are as small as dried persimmon pies. Xue’s Sesame Pancakes are golden-colored and there are two flavors, sweet and salty. The salty ones are decorated with black sesame. Even the pancakes are baked by oil, they are not greasy but crisp and delicious. It can be eaten up with two or three bites.

烧饼用油纸包着，一包里有五个。不过这些烧饼都很小，跟小柿饼差不多大小，色泽金黄，有甜、咸两种，咸的上面有黑芝麻。吃起来香脆酥软，略有些油，甜而不腻。两三口能吃掉一个。

Tasting a pancake is enjoyable but not the hard making process. Everyday, scores of procedures have been repeated hundreds of times, including kneading dough, rolling out dough, making the inner stuffed dough, adding sugar, making round dough, rolling out dough again, putting on the plates, decorating, baking, turning upside down three times and brushing oil twice. The oil is a key element in making the crisp pancakes layers. The one applied in traditional Xue’s Sesame Pancake is donkey oil. But it has been changed into vegetable oil to cater for more people’s taste.

烧饼好吃但是打烧饼却是个苦差事。和面、擀饼、擦瓤面、加糖、包圆、再擀饼、入烤盘、点红、入烤炉、翻三次、上两次油……几十道工序，每天重复上百次。烧饼之所以像千层酥一样是因为里面和的油，传统的薛记烧饼用的是驴油，不过现在为了适应更多人的口味，打烧饼就改用了植物油。