Pingyu Sesame Crisp Bread 平舆芝麻焦馍

Pingyu Sesame Crisp Bread (平舆芝麻焦馍) is a thin sesame-studded flatbread toasted until crisp, linked to Pingyu County (平舆县) in Zhumadian (驻马店), Henan, a county known for its white sesame.

How it is made

The Dahe Daily (大河报) describes sesame jiaomo (芝麻焦馍) as a common local food of southern Henan, shaped like laomo (烙馍), the thin griddle flatbread of the region. It starts as a laomo: sesame seeds are scattered over the dough and pressed in with a light pass of the rolling pin, and the bread is then cooked the way laomo is, which gives a half-finished product. Before eating it is toasted over a very low fire and left to cool, and only then does it become jiaomo, the "toasted bread".

Flavour and texture

In the Dahe Daily's description, well-made jiaomo is thin, with the sesame toasted yellow. It is crisp and flaky, and one light bite breaks the whole bread apart in the hand. The newspaper links the name with childhood memories for Henan readers.

Where it comes from

Sesame is Pingyu's second crop after wheat, and the county is a main growing area for China's summer sesame, long known by the epithet "Pingyu, king of sesame" (平舆芝麻王). Its white sesame holds national geographical-indication status. In April 2020 the Dahe Daily reported that Pingyu sesame and Henan's sesame jiaomo would appear in the second season of the food documentary Once Upon a Bite (风味人间). The chairman of a Pingyu sesame company presenting the county's sesame products in a May 2020 livestream with the county head listed sesame jiaomo in a snack series with bread and sesame crisps (芝麻酥).

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Xiangcheng White Sesame Crisp Bread 项城白芝麻焦馍 →

Another Henan sesame jiaomo, named after Xiangcheng rather than Pingyu.