Flatbreads · FFET10229
Nang (baked flatbread)
Leavened flatbread stamped with a pattern, sprinkled with sesame and baked on the wall of a clay pit oven, a bread of Xinjiang courtyards.
A white porcelain plate holds golden flatbread made with butter, plain yogurt and milk, its baked surface bearing a pressed pattern and a sprinkling of white sesame seeds, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
Shaobing, griddle bread, guokui, naan, spring pancakes and other wheat flatbreads.
Nang is a leavened wheat flatbread of Xinjiang, stamped with a pattern, often sprinkled with sesame and baked on the wall of a clay pit oven. Also found in Central, West and South Asia, it was once called hubing or lubing. A Tang-period flatbread from the Astana tombs at Turpan closely resembles modern nang and may be the hubing known in Chang'an. This tentative identification comes from a 2025 interview with a Xinjiang museum researcher; the interview gives no specific year.
What
Nang is a leavened wheat flatbread, often stamped with a pattern and sprinkled with sesame, baked on the wall of a nang pit, an oven of clay.1,4,5,6
When
Nang was once called hubing and lubing; no firm starting year is established. A thin Tang-period flatbread from the Astana tombs at Turpan closely resembles modern nang and may be the hubing known in Chang'an. This tentative identification comes from an October 2025 interview with a Xinjiang museum researcher; excavation reports were not checked here. A small sesame cake also came from Tomb 191 in 1973.1,3
Where
This flatbread is found in Xinjiang and in Central, West and South Asia.1
How
Wheat dough is mixed with water, yeast, oil and salt, shaped, stamped with a pattern and slapped onto the wall of the nang pit to bake. For homes without a pit, two recipes use a very hot oven, one with a baking stone.4,5,6
Why
The reason is unspecified. The nang pit is central to Uygur courtyards, baking bread and stuffed buns and roasting chickens and whole sheep, uses documented in a 2026 report.2
Impact and influence
Xinjiang has a nang museum, local nang pits and a shop shipping nang across China, documented in a report updated in January 2026.2
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
In Xinjiang nang is baked on the wall of a clay pit oven. This is my simplified home version, with the home oven in place of the pit, making two small breads. Both recipes, written by food bloggers, are also home-oven adaptations rather than pit methods. The dough amounts follow the latter recipe, and the sugar and the rising time follow the former; the two recipes bake at about the same temperature and time, 250 to 260 degrees Celsius for 10 to 15 minutes, and I bake the same way. The milk wash and sesame follow the latter recipe, and pricking the center is my own choice.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour 190 g, about 1 1/2 cups
- Salt 3/4 teaspoon
- Sugar 1 teaspoon
- Instant yeast 1 teaspoon
- Butter 1 tablespoon, softened
- Plain yogurt 2 tablespoons
- Warm water about 60 ml, a little more if needed
- Milk (for brushing) 1 tablespoon
- White sesame seeds 1 tablespoon
Steps
- Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast, add the softened butter, yogurt and warm water, stir into a rough dough, cover and rest for 10 minutes.
- Knead about 5 minutes until smooth, cover and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled (the 1-hour rise comes from the former recipe).
- Divide the dough in two and press each piece into a round about 18 cm across, thinner in the middle and thicker at the rim. Prick the middle all over with a fork, cover and rest 20 more minutes.
- While the dough rests, preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius with a baking stone or a heavy tray inside.
- Brush the tops with milk, sprinkle with sesame, slide onto the hot stone or tray and bake 10 to 15 minutes, until the surface is golden (both recipes fall within this range of temperature and time).
Tips
- Do prick the middle, or the bread will balloon into one big bubble as it bakes.
- Eat it hot; once cool, warm it in a dry pan, turning it over.
Allergens: wheat, milk, sesame