Sesame pancakes are sold everywhere in China. Whether fried or baked, salty or sweet, with meat fillings or bean paste, the cakes usually use dough and pastry as major ingredients, and are sold throughout the year.
Sijing sesame pancakes with sweetened lard fillings, however, are seasonal local snacks that are available in the market only from lichun, or spring begins, in early February, to guyu, or grain rain, in late April.
The crumbly pastry comes in two types. The oval one is savoury, with minced pork and spring onion; the round ones are sweet with melt-in-your-mouth sugar. For both flavours, the local secret is to enclose a lump of duck fat in the dough before baking.
The white sesame topping brings in an aromatically sweet kick.
