Sishui Filled Baked Pastry 泗水火烧

Sishui Filled Baked Pastry (泗水火烧) is a well-known snack of Sishui County (泗水县) in Jining (济宁), Shandong. Unlike the usual round huoshao (火烧, baked bread), it is rectangular and about the size of a palm, and it holds a filling the way a dumpling does. Jining Daily gives it more than 300 years of history.

Ingredients

The pastry is made from wheat flour, fresh pork, spring onion, coriander and peanut oil. Cooks use a flour kept for the purpose and knead the dough until it is springy; the filling is prepared through several steps.

How it is made

The filled pastries are baked in a purpose-built oven until the surface turns golden. For the meat version the griddle pan (鏊子) is closed above and below so the heat reaches it evenly. Some cooks mix leavened dough with unleavened dough and, after filling, first cook the pastry on the griddle and then bake it.

Flavour and texture

The skin is thin, dry and crisp, the filling generous and soft, and the flavour savoury and fresh, with plenty of oily juice.

Where it comes from

Sishui County runs free training courses in making the pastry: Jining Daily reported in 2024 that they had provided more than 1,600 trainee places. At a training base in Sunjiazhuang (孙家庄), Jihe Subdistrict (济河街道), trainees make quick-frozen Sishui pastries for online orders.