Hua Juan Variations

Hua Juan is Chinese for "flower roll". Typically, it comprises a yeast dough with green onions and sesame oil.

I tried two variations, one with whole wheat flour, the other with all-purpose bleached flour. The difference? The latter has much less gluten in it, resulting in a fluffier texture and whiter color, but with a slightly poorer shape, due to the difficulty in forming low gluten dough.

The general method of forming hua juan is to roll out the dough into a flat piece, cut into parallel strips, coat with sesame oil and green onions, then twist the strips together, making sure to pinch the ends together. Once you have a "rope", tie it together into a knot, and fold the ends.


Whole Wheat Flour Hua Juan

For the first try, I took a pastry brush, painted the dough strips with sesame oil, scattered diced green onions on them, with a dash of salt. This recipe had more gluten, was easier to form into "juan", but didn't taste as authentic.



Whiter Hua Juan

- 2.5 cups all purpose un-bleached flour
- 1.5 cups wheat starch
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- dash of salt
- 1 packet of dry yeast (2 tsp) proofed in 1.5 cups warm water
- diced scallions
- sesame oil

1. First, make the dough.
2. Second, mix the scallions, sesame oil, and salt in a small bowl.
3. Using the same strip method, cover with seasoned scallions, form into rope, and assemble.
4. Steam on high heat for about 10 minutes.

I used bleached flour for the image below, and the gluten content was far too low, thus resulting in this free-form shape. I'd use unbleached for more shape. However, the fluffiness and taste were very good.