Last week I made the Cheesy Scallion Pancakes recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. This is a riff on the Chinese-Style Scallion Pancakes with grated cheese laminated into the dough along with the scallions.

Given my lack of confidence with the Chinese-Style Scallion Pancake process, I borrowed a friends food processor to make the dough according to the recipe, instead of Kenji’s alternative in the note.

To make the dough in a food processor, the flour first goes in. Then, with the processor running, the hot water is drizzled in. Kenji directs to process for 15 seconds, but the water took longer than that to make it’s way through the little hole in the machine. He says to add more water a tablespoon at a time until the dough “comes together and ride around the blade.” After the initial water, the dough was a crumbly texture. It took me another couple of tablespoons to get it to “ride around the blade.” Then the dough is kneaded a couple of times and set aside to rest. Compared to my previous attempt, the dough was wetter this time. Perhaps it was dryer last time from the additional flour on the counter while kneading it for five minutes?

The rest of the process is the same as without a food processor. I felt it went a little easier this time, either from the food processor-made dough, experience, or luck (or a combination). The dough seemed to better stick together when re-rolling.

I also chopped the scallions much smaller this time to try and combat the outer dough layer tearing on the final re-roll. I still had some tearing, but not as much as last time. The only difference for these pancakes is the addition of shredded cheddar with the scallions. That resulted in a fatter roll, but went fine.

The pan-frying all went fine and very similar to last time.

The end result was good, but I didn’t particularly care for the cheese addition. It made the pancakes a touch heavy for me. I used extra-sharp cheddar. Perhaps a milder cheddar, or less of it, would have been more enjoyable? Maybe my old stomach has a harder time with cheesy bready things?

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.