Dan Bing Recipe – Taiwanese Egg Pancakes (蛋餅)

Bursting with flavour, this Dan Bing Recipe with tuna and egg makes the perfect savoury breakfast crepe or quick snack. A light batter made with cornflour (cornstarch) ensures these Taiwanese egg pancakes are crispy and fluffy, yet light and totally delicious!

Why We Love This

Taiwanese Dan Bing are delicious savoury pancakes with the perfect blend of crispy outside + soft and chewy inside. 

The rolled pancakes are super easy to whip up – you can prep and cook them in around 10 minutes with simple and inexpensive ingredients (that you probably already have at home).

Slice and slather with sauce, or eat them by hand straight out of the pan. Just like a quick and easy no-fuss breakfast burrito or tasty snack on the go!

What is Dan Bing? 

Dan Bing literally translates as “egg” and “cake”. These traditional Taiwanese egg pancakes are the ULTIMATE street food breakfast. In Taiwan you’ll find them at cafes and breakfast joints sprinkled across the cities, or more often from busy street vendors serving long lines of hungry customers.

They’re designed to be cooked and eaten FAST, and once you get the hang of it, you’ll be whipping them up in no time!

Where We Learned This Recipe

We touched down in the Taiwanese Capital City of Taipei right in the middle of Chinese New Year. Which, of course, meant that almost everyone had skipped town to visit their families. The streets appeared empty. Shops and restaurants were closed, and there wasn’t a soul to be seen on the streets. Until we ventured into laneways and alleyways, and stumbled across foodie gold.

One such find was a local stall tucked beneath an apartment building near our home base. Opening at 8.00am, it would disappear behind a nondescript roller shutter around midday.

One morning we spied the assembly line – husband, wife and son working together at a massive grill – churning out piping hot burgers and dan bing to lines of hungry people. Such enticing aromas emanating from that grill… one whiff had us wandering in for a closer look.

Despite not speaking any local language, we managed to communicate: ‘We’ll have what they’re having.” 

Our Dan Bing Discovery

Success! Taiwanese Pork & Egg Breakfast Burger + Dan Bing Pancake + (massive) Chinese Coffee INBOUND. We took a seat inside the tiny restaurant beside other neighbours tucking into their food, no doubt fooling no one by casually reading the local paper. 

Next there was a tap on my shoulder. Mr Husband gestured to his massive coffee kettle offering us a refill. After filling our cup to the brim he gestured repeatedly towards the grill with a rapid-fire stream of words that went straight over our heads. Drawing us over to the grill, he pointed to his signboard (where not a stroke of English could be seen). I knew the same thoughts were whizzing through both our minds. What is he saying? What do we do? Eeeeep.

Whack!

Saved by Mrs Wife, who gave Mr Husband a good slap and yelled out something that could only mean, ‘They don’t understand you!’

She held up her sauce bottles and everything became clear.  After nodding our heads enthusiastically, with a deft hand Mrs Wife slathered our Dan Bing with a tangy sauce blend – a mix of soy and sweet chilli. The rest is history!

What You’ll Need

This recipe is super easy – all you need to make your own dan bing are a handful of ingredients that you can easily find at your local supermarket (or ready to go in your pantry!):

• Cheese – We used tasty cheese, but feel free to experiment with cheddar, parmesan or mozzarella!
• Spring onions – also known as green onions or scallions
• Cornflour / cornstarch – this gives your pancakes that subtle crispy crunch
• Sesame oil – for cooking, this adds an extra delicious flavour zing

The sauce is a simple blend of equal parts sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce, which is so delicious I can’t believe we’ve never thought to mix the two before!

How to make it at home:

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1. For the sauce: Pop your soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce in a small bowl, then give them a good stir and set aside.
2. For the pancake batter: Place plain flour, cornstarch/cornflour and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the water. Whisk until the batter has a nice runny consistency with no lumps.
3. In a separate small bowl or pouring jug add the tuna, cheese, spring onions, egg and mix well. Pop aside.

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4. Now heat the sesame oil in a small to medium frypan. Pour in a small amount of batter and quickly swirl until it reaches the edges. Cook for 1 minute until the pancake starts to cook.
5. Next, top with around a ⅓ of the egg and tuna mixture and spread across the top in a thin layer. Avoid the edges if you can.
6. Continue cooking until the egg just starts to set, then slide the spatula around the edges to loosen the pancake and flip it over. Continue cooking for another 30 seconds before flipping it back.

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7. Now you can fold in two edges to create a yummy rolled pancake!
8. To serve, transfer your freshly cooked and rolled pancakes to serving plates, slice into 2-3cm strips and drizzle with your blended soy and sweet chilli sauce. Alternatively, you can serve them whole and wrapped in a piece of paper.

Wandercook’s Tips

• The consistency of your homemade crepe batter may vary until you get the hang of it. For the tastiest, crispiest pancake, aim for a super runny batter with no lumps. 
• When pouring your egg mixture onto the pancake, try avoiding the edges if you can. 

FAQs

Variations & Substitutes

• If you’re feeling experimental, why not try these dan bing sauce ingredient substitutes – different combos of hoisin, oyster sauce, worcestershire sauce or even ketchup would work perfectly!
• If you don’t have (or enjoy) sesame oil you can substitute with vegetable oil

Here’s a few similar recipes to try out next:

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