A plain white porcelain plate holds palm-sized baked sesame bread with a golden-brown surface dotted with tiny white sesame seeds across the top of the bread, with a pair of wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
Shaobing, griddle bread, guokui, naan, spring pancakes and other wheat flatbreads.
Guang bing is a palm-sized baked sesame bread from Fujian, eaten plain, filled with pork or dried shrimp and chives, fried with offal, or broken into soup (report dated September 29, 2022). Versions come from Hongshanqiao in Fuzhou, Fuqing, Putian and Jian'ou, with an offshoot in the Ryukyu Islands. Its name is traditionally linked to the Ming general Qi Jiguang in a tale set in 1563, but this is a legendary date, and no dated Ming text was consulted for this entry.
What
Guang bing is a palm-sized, sesame-topped baked bread from Fujian, eaten plain, filled with pork or dried shrimp and chives, fried with offal, or broken into soup (report dated September 29, 2022).2
When
Tradition ties guang bing to Qi Jiguang in 1563. The year comes from an indirect account of a Qing commentary that was not consulted, and no dated Ming text was found, so 1563 is a legendary date, not a documented beginning.1
Where
Guang bing comes from Fujian, with versions from Hongshanqiao in Fuzhou, Fuqing, Putian and Jian'ou, and an offshoot in the Ryukyu Islands. The available texts do not establish how the Fuzhou and Fuqing versions differ.1
How
The bread is made from flour, edible alkali and salt. In 2 home recipes, yeasted dough is pressed into disks, coated in sesame and baked at different oven temperatures.2,3,4
Why
The bread was meant to keep well, be strung on a cord for carrying and require no cooking fire on the march; this is a legendary explanation, not a documented reason.1,2,3,4
Impact and influence
Guang bing is sold on the streets of Fujian. Filled variations are found in Sarawak, Malaysia, and a related bread in the Ryukyu Islands derives from it.1,2,3,4
The tale goes that in 1563, the forty-second year of Jiajing, General Qi Jiguang was fighting pirates in Fujian. Steady rain kept his men from cooking, so he had holed cakes made that could be strung on a cord and carried. The bread took his name, Jiguang.
Told in: A Fujian tale: Chinese Wikipedia sets it in 1563 and cites a Qing commentary, and the China Daily report of September 29, 2022 tells of rain stopping the cooking. The commentary was not opened, and no dated Ming text was found.
The smoke that gave them away
Another telling says the pirates tracked Qi Jiguang's troops by the smoke of their cooking fires, so he made a dry, long-keeping bread with a hole for a cord. One blog adds that it copied the rice balls the pirates ate.
Told in: A telling from the Fuzhou area, found in two food blogs, one of which says it draws on Wikipedia. It is a blog telling, and no dated original text was found.
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the version I bake at home in an ordinary oven, just the bread, with no filling. Edible alkali belongs to the traditional dough and I leave it out, using yeast instead, so this is a home adaptation. The amounts of flour, oil and water and the kneading and rising times follow one signed recipe in general, and the hole and the 15-minute rest after poking it follow another signed recipe. The salt, the yeast and the oven temperature are my own choices at home.
Ingredients
Bread flour 300 g
Salt 6 g
Instant yeast 3 g
Cooking oil 10 ml
Warm water 165 ml
White sesame seeds about 40 g, for coating
Water, for brushing a little
Steps
Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl, add the oil and warm water, and bring it to a dough. Knead for about 8 minutes, until the surface is smooth.
Cover it and leave it for about 1 hour, until clearly bigger.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Press each into a disc about 1 cm thick and 8 cm across, and poke a hole in the middle with a chopstick.
Brush one side of each disc with a little water and press it into the sesame seeds until that side is coated.
Set the discs sesame side up on a tray lined with parchment paper and leave them for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until golden. The two recipes I read give about 180 degrees Celsius and about 218 degrees Celsius, and 200 is my compromise between them.
Let them cool for a few minutes and eat them warm, slightly crisp outside and soft within.
Tips
Press the sesame seeds on firmly, or they fall off while baking; this is my own way.
The hole shrinks a little as the bread rises, so I poke it slightly larger than I want it; this is my own habit.
