Shāobing (烧饼) in this entry is the plain baked sesame flatbread taken on its own, the layered, sesame-crusted wheat round that serves as the carrier for a whole family of stuffed street foods. It is logged separately because the bread is a finished item in its own right, eaten plain as often as it is split and filled, and its quality is fixed entirely at the bake. The defining trait is the contrast between a thin crisp sesame shell and an interior built from many fine, oil-separated flaky layers.
The craft is lamination and oven heat. A wheat dough is rolled out thin, painted with a roux of flour and oil, then folded and re-rolled several times so the fat keeps the sheets from fusing; the piece is shaped, its surface dampened and pressed hard into sesame seeds, and baked, classically against the wall of a hot clay oven, until it colors and the layers set. The aim is a bread that is crisp on the outside and structurally airy within. Done well it has a shatter-crisp, evenly toasted sesame crust, a crumb that separates into clean flaky leaves, and enough internal give to be torn or split without collapsing into a dense wad. Done poorly the failure modes are specific: too little oil between folds and it bakes into one solid mass with no layering; pulled from the heat early and the middle stays raw and gummy; left too long or cooked only on a dry griddle and it hardens into a brittle disc that crumbles instead of flaking; sesame pressed on too lightly and the seeds shed as soon as it is picked up.
It shifts by shape, richness, and intended use. Some are round, some rectangular; a fattier, more laminated dough flakes more delicately, a leaner one bakes sturdier for stuffing. Plain savory rounds are made to carry fillings; sweeter versions fold sugar into the layers and stand alone. Where the bread is cut and packed, that becomes a different preparation: the egg-filled shāobing, the pork-tenderloin shāobing, and the meat-baked-in ròu shāobing each deserve their own article rather than being folded in here. What defines plain shāobing is the baked structure itself, a sesame-crusted, finely layered wheat bread that holds its crispness whether eaten alone or split to hold something else.