Linhuan Barrel-Oven Flatbread 临涣烧饼
Linhuan Barrel-Oven Flatbread is featured among the local specialties of Anhui.
Linhuan Barrel-Oven Flatbread (临涣烧饼) is a semi-dry, fire-baked wheat bread named after the town of Linhuan (临涣) and popular across the Huaibei (淮北) area of Anhui, where the city government lists it among local specialities.
How it is made
The main ingredients are wheat flour, pork lard, sesame and chopped spring onion. The dough is leavened in the traditional way, kneaded smooth and pinched off into pieces, one per bread. Each piece is rolled into an oval and pulled out into a long thin sheet, spread with lard, scattered with spring onion and folded over into a horseshoe shape. The top is coated in sesame and the bread goes into a barrel oven (桶炉) to bake.
Breads are shaped and baked continuously, and the barrel oven keeps the heat even. Breads made with good-quality pork leaf lard taste more fragrant and turn out crisper.
Flavour and texture
Fresh from the oven, Linhuan Barrel-Oven Flatbread is crisp outside and tender inside. Four qualities are claimed for it: the smell of baked dough and spring onion, strongest straight from the oven; a dense crust of sesame; a crisp, flaky skin; and a soft crumb. The finished bread is described as neither oily nor greasy, white and glossy.
Linhuan bakers make several types: a crisp, fragrant flaky version (油酥烧饼), a many-layered one (千层烧饼), a large thin-layered one (薄层烧饼) and a soft, moist horseshoe bread (马蹄烧饼). The horseshoe bread, named for its shape, is the one rated best to eat.
Where it comes from
The Huaibei plain has been a main wheat-growing area since ancient times. In the Qin and Han periods Linhuan was a noted walled town and military site, and the city's account dates the first seasoned fire-baked breads to that era. Linhuan was a commercial centre under the Tang and Song and a regional town in the Ming and Qing. During the Huaihai campaign local people gave the bread as field rations to soldiers heading for the front.
Linhuan has more than twenty established flatbread workshops, and more than ten extra appear around festivals. The best-known horseshoe bread in town is the Ying family's (营家马蹄烧饼), a stall on the streets of Linhuan run from a simple tricycle with a board, an oven, a long ladle and a spatula. Its current keeper, Ying Guangming (营光明), is the fourth generation and bakes more than 80 jin (about 40 kg) of dough a day. Stalls under the Linhuan name have since opened in Suixi (濉溪), Huaibei, Suzhou (宿州), Yongcheng (永城), Bozhou (亳州) and Hefei (合肥).
More dishes to compare
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Xiatang Sesame Flatbread 下塘烧饼 →
Another Anhui town sesame flatbread; the Linhuan bread is defined by its lard-and-spring-onion horseshoe fold baked in a barrel oven.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- Reference photo of a similar dish · 同类菜品参考照片A similar preparation is pictured; the local version may differ. 同类菜品参考照片，当地做法可能不同。Photo: N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited. Thumbnails may show a cropped view.
