For Beijingers, baking cakes is the food that Beijingers can't do without, and it is also a versatile food. Why do you say so, for example, you eat shabu-shabu, eat grilled meat can not be separated from the baked cake, eat haggis to burn the cake is enough to taste, baked cake with sauce elbows, baked cake with sauce beef is even more hungry...
Beijing's baked cake is a big "series" of Beijing snacks. The name alone is dazzling:
Roughly can be divided into two categories: burnt cake and burnt cake, generally with sesame seeds called burnt cake, without sesame seeds called fire. In the finer parts, the burnt cakes also have tahini baked cakes, horseshoe baked cakes, hanging oven baked cakes and so on.
Fire should actually be called "fire cake", it is also a baked or baked cake. There are sugar fires, screw turns, sugar burns, puff pastry fires, hook fires, and so on. The stoves used in baking are different, and can be divided into hanging oven baking cakes, cylinder oven baked cakes and stuffy stove baked cakes.
Beijing's baked cakes are generally used as breakfast or food for additional meals, and it is rarely seen on the table as a formal meal in addition to eating grilled meat and shabu-shabu. The shops that sell baked cakes are very small, and most of them mainly sell breakfast. The bakery I remember most vividly is an inconspicuous little shop at the head of the three bridges.
To the south of the three bridges (which have been demolished in the early fifties and now only the place names remain), there is a small bakery shop, located on the southeast corner of the east entrance of Giethoorn Hutong. There was only one person in the bakery, a Muslim, nearly fifty years old. He was large, bald, with small eyes, and a very shrewd and talkative man. His bakery shop is actually a small house built against the north gable of the grain store at the entrance of the street, a bit like the "earthquake shed" that Beijingers generally built in the yard after the Tangshan earthquake.
The shop is more than one meter wide from north to south and more than three meters long from east to west. In the southeast corner of the shop there is a brick bakery, and immediately to the west of the stove is a wooden case about a meter long, which serves as an operating table for making baked cakes. There is a window on the east side of the shop, which is used as a window for selling baked cakes in winter, and inside the window is a baking oven. Outside the window hung a small halal guise embellished with blue cloth strips, on which was a Western-style pot with a fairy breath coming out of the spout, and the words "Halal Ancient Religion" were written on the top. Facing the north wall of the bakery, there is a door. In the summer, the treasurer opens the door and chats with the people who are resting under the roots of the south wall while making burnt cakes.
Every morning, when there was no one on the street, the treasurer would get up and start making a fire, kneading the dough, and making preparations. When the fire came up, the noodles were also eaten, the people walking on the street came out, and the treasurer began to make the first oven of baked cakes.
People who cook cakes in Beijing have a unique skill: holding a purple-red jujube rolling stick that is eight inches long, while rolling the cake, they can also use the rolling stick in their hands to strike at the noodle case with different rhythmic sounds. Sometimes as fast as a storm, sometimes as fast as a storm, sometimes as soft as a slow beating, sometimes crisp, sometimes low, the sound of the rolling stick on the dough case is like a beautiful percussion song, from early in the morning, constantly coming out of the hut, floating over the three bridges.
Listening to the crisp sound of the case, smelling the freshly baked cake and the smell of roasted sesame seeds, no matter who it is, it will also arouse your appetite. Eating freshly baked bread is also a hobby I have developed since I was a child.
When making the cake, first knead the noodles back and forth on the board until the surface of the noodles is smooth. Then knead the kneaded dough into a long strip and use your hands to make the dough into a dough of even size. When the treasurer grabbed the dough in his left hand and began to make the baked cake, the rolling stick in his right hand began to "play", first "Dang!" while! Two voices announced that today's baked cakes have begun to be made.
Then a series of rapid tapping sounds came out from the collision between the two ends of the rolling stick and the face case, followed by "Boom! At the sound of a sound, the tapping of the rolling stick suddenly stopped, which was the beginning of the rolling agent of the treasurer.
The rolling stick only went back and forth on the dough twice, and the dough was rolled out into a half-foot long strip. At this time, the four fingers of the right hand of the treasurer grasped the end of the dough on the upper thumb, and then gently lifted the dough to leave the dough case, followed by a swipe to the right, while the wrist flipped over and the back of the hand was up, and the dough was "snapped" on the dough case after being swept around. By this time, the dough had become a dough about a foot and a half long, four-finger-wide dough that had been attached to the dough.
At the same time that the dough skin fell on the case, the left hand of the treasurer put four fingers together, dug out some tahini from the small basin containing the tahini, and spread it evenly on the whole dough. Then roll the dough into a dough roll from left to right, and then fold the two ends of the dough roll back, and a round baked cake blank is ready.
This series of movements is simply a beautiful dance and magic show, which makes people look dazzling.
After a batch of baked cake blanks is ready, the treasurer will use a small brush to brush the cake blank with a layer of brown sugar and tahini sauce. Then put the cake blank in two groups, the brushed juice side is placed down into a basket containing sesame seeds, and after it is stained with sesame seeds, both hands take a baked cake, pat it on the opposite side, and put it back into the dough case. Once all the cake blanks are dipped in sesame seeds, we will start rolling out the cakes. Press the cake blank by hand, and then roll it a few times with a rolling stick, and the cake will take shape. Place the rolled-out pans one by one into the hot pan and burn them. There is a pot of burnt cakes here, and the next pot of baked cakes is being made over there.
When the burnt bread in the pan is a little yellow on both sides, the baked cake is put into the hearth under the pan and baked. The oven for baking cakes is actually a dual-purpose oven for baking. There is a 20 cm high space between the hearth of the stove and the cake bell, which is actually a "soil oven". The half-cooked baked cakes are also baked around the mouth of the hearth. Only after baking can the baked cake reach the outside of the brown and the inside soft. If you only bake it and don't bake it, you can't make a crispy and soft baked cake.
After baking, the baked cake is really "out of the pan". Freshly baked cakes, there is a seductive smell of fried sesame seeds, who smell will involuntarily turn their heads to look at it. When I was a child, I loved to eat freshly baked cakes.
In this "earth oven" of baked cakes, in addition to baking baked cakes, every afternoon, "dry ovens" are baked. The so-called dry boo is to turn the remaining screws (a kind of fire) sold in the morning, put them in this "soil oven", and dry them at the temperature of the embers, just like the grilled steamed bread slices and toast slices sold now. Baked dry, browned and crispy, it is a good food for wine drinkers in the liquor store to accompany the wine, and it is also a good snack for coaxing children.
Pancake
The baked cakes include: tahini baked cakes, horseshoe burnt cakes, hanging oven baked cakes and so on.
Fire
And this fire is: sugar fire, screw turn, puff pastry fire and so on.
However, with the development of life, some burnt cakes have been "extinct" and are not easy to find...
Cylinder oven baked cake
The pot stove cake is made of the stove burner, and it is also fragrant, crispy and crispy to eat. The reason is that it takes advantage of the smoothness, fire resistance and thickness of the "cylinder". In terms of heat, it is even more exquisite, because the cylinder is concave, and the cold or hot baked cake must be slid down. The four sides of the pot stove baked cake are mostly rectangular, with many layers on the inside, more sesame seeds on the outside, and flower eaves on them, which are similar in size to the current sesame baked cakes.
Bake cakes in a stew oven
Oil and noodles, round oven baked cakes, about the size of walnuts, are characterized by ten connected together and broken open when eaten.
There are also quite a lot of fillings for the oven roast cakes, including fat oil (lard), green onions, dried vegetables, bean paste, date paste, osmanthus white sugar, hawthorn white sugar and so on. You can say it's a staple food or you can say it's a pastry.
In the past, the oven baked cakes made by "Zhi Mei Zhai" and "Wufang Zhai" in Dong'an Market were the most delicious, in addition to these two places, the "Kui Yi Zhai" in the south of The Fresh Fish Mouth Xiaoqiao Road outside the front door was also famous in the Nancheng area.
Horseshoe baked cake
Horseshoe baked cake, also known as donkey hoof baked cake, is different from ordinary baked cake. When baked, it comes out of the oven, the color is yellow and red, the round noodles are slightly bulging, and a horse's hoof is off alive, which is characterized by the outside caramel and the aroma, salty and sweet.
Horseshoe roast cake is red and white.
Red horseshoe with brown sugar color sugar water dipped in sesame seeds, with sweetness; white horseshoe does not use brown sugar water, with white water dipped in sesame seeds, so the color is white, its skin is thin and hollow, suitable for coke circles and thin crisp, row fork to eat.
In the early years, there was a shop in front of the Drum Tower that sold white horseshoes, and whenever it came out, it was crowded.
Horseshoe fire
The method of horseshoe fire is basically the same as that of horseshoe roast cake, but it is slightly larger, no pretzel is placed inside, no brown sugar water is brushed on the outside, and the bottom and lid are as thick as the bottom and cover after baking, and the characteristics are also externally charred and fragrant.
Wrap shortbread
It is similar to the taste of tahini baked cakes. The preparation method is to roll out half a hair noodle into large pieces, spread the sesame sauce, sprinkle with pepper and salt to roll into long rolls, and then cut horizontally into rectangular cubes about three inches long and about two inches wide, and bake them.
Crab shell yellow cake
Because the roast cake is shaped like a crab shell and the color is like crab yellow, it is named crab shell yellow. It's especially crispy when it comes out of the oven, but once it's cool, it's not very easy to chew. Round crab shell yellow cake taste salty, oblong with filling (brown sugar filling, bean paste filling, dried vegetable filling). For baking, an oven is about three feet high, round (made of a small jar surrounded by wooden boards), with a hole in the top of the stove, and the cake is cooked and clamped out with fire tongs.
Hanging oven baked cake
Most of the hanging stove baked cakes are made by Muslim shops, and the cake blanks are baked with a hanging stove, and the hanging furnace is shaped like a covered pot with an iron plate as the bottom, hoisted with an iron chain, moved with a wooden stick, and the cinder is crushed in the furnace.
This kind of baked cake has a long history, and the Qing Dynasty Yang Miren's "Dumen Bamboo Branch Words" has the sentence "Cold fruit fried cake has many ears, and the hanging furnace burns the cake Ai Wo Wo Wo". It is characterized by two layers of thick skin, no urn, which is eaten for the purpose of sandwiching meat or oil dumplings. Due to the labor-intensive production, it was gradually replaced by tahini baked cakes.
Fake hanging oven baked cake
The shape and taste of the fake hanging oven baked cake are no different from the hanging oven baked cake, but the hanging oven is replaced by a cake bell when making.
Sugar burns
The sweet and thick, soft and non-stick sugar fire is named because it is made by making a cylinder into a stove and baking the raw cake blank directly on the wall of the tank.
Shortbread
The shortbread is golden in color, overlapping in thin layers, and crispy on the inside and out, and delicious. There is no sesame sauce inside, the cake surface has sesame seeds, a large layer of oil, and the taste is slightly salty or sugar filling.
The puff pastry is on fire
The outer burnt and the inner soft puff pastry are burned, and eggs can also be poured according to the preferences of diners, called puff pastry egg fire. The general method is to roll out the reconciled noodles (unleavened) into pancakes, spread with sesame oil and other condiments, roll them up, pat them flat with their hands, form a circle, put them on a tweezer until they are half-cooked, and then put them in the oven and burn them.
Chengsha baked cake
Chengsha baked cake color yellow and white, crisp and delicious, pine sand sweet is also our Beijing characteristics, and because of its production process, after cooking, cracked mouth dew filling, alias "clam swallow honey".
Tahini baked cake
This is the most common kind of burnt cake that we Beijingers eat.
The pie is covered with sesame seeds, and the cake is spread with sesame sauce, sprinkled with pretzel and salt, and then folded, so it is multi-layered. It is first burned on a bell for nearly half cooking, and then baked in the hearth, and when it comes out of the oven, it is tender on the outside and tender on the inside, soft and delicious. Slightly salty taste.
Screw turn
The outer skin of the screw turner is a very thin dough, which is crispy when touched.
The founder of screw turner was sun deshan, who was once a dim sum chef in the "imperial dining room" of the late Qing dynasty. After the qing dynasty, he came out of the palace, ran a morning shop outside the Di'an Gate, and taught the craft of making small screws in the coke ring to his apprentice Wu Dianyuan.
To say that we have more than these burnt cakes in Beijing, you will continue to look down:
Fry the meat and burn it
Fried pork fire is a traditional snack specialized by our Beijing, but it is difficult to find now.
When it comes to fried meat burning, we have to mention this court snack called "Yipin Burnt Cake", which is a dim sum given by the emperor to the officials of the dynasty, and this fried meat roast is the folk halal version of Yipin Burnt Cake. Due to its halal nature, it is made with vegetable oil, the skin blank is changed from water surface to semi-fermented dough, and the filling is a combination of beef and yellow sauce. After being fried in the pan, it is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, juicy and delicious, rich in yellow sauce, and very smooth and tender in the beef filling.
Brine and cook over high heat
There are few authentic Beijingers who are not good at brine and boiled, and in everyone's heart, there is also a favorite brine shop~
Brine fire originated in Nanheng Street in the south of Beijing. It is said that during the Guangxu period, because the su-made meat cooked with pork belly was expensive, people replaced it with pig head meat and pig sewage, and after the spread of folk cooking masters, over time, it was boiled and boiled.
Brine and fire is to put the fire and stewed pork intestines and pig lungs together, supplemented by fried tofu slices, marinade, garlic juice, sauce tofu juice, coriander and other accessories, so that the fire is burned through and not sticky, the meat is rotten but not bad.
The rags burned
I love to eat porcelain with a rag and a fire, and I have gathered ~
According to legend, the Fire was created in 1876 by Yao Chunxuan and his wife of the Shunyi clan. To make, fill the dough with the filling, fold on both sides, the other two sides are not sealed, put in a frying pan and fry until golden brown, then serve on the pan and serve while hot. Because of its long stripe, sometimes folded in half, similar to the ancient shoulder of the fold, it has the name of the jacket fire.
Seeing this, you say that we don't have a lot of baked cakes in Beijing, right?
The older generation said: When eating burnt cakes, one hand is squeezed horizontally, and the other hand is supported. There are sesame seeds facing outwards, reflecting the respect of Beijingers for things, and people must also have noodles, inside and outside, and eating is also the same.
By the way, what's going on at your house tonight? Is it time to change it? Buy a few burnt cakes after work?