Shāobing (烧饼) is the baked sesame flatbread, a layered, flaky wheat round coated in sesame seeds and cooked in an oven or on a griddle, served plain or split to hold a filling. This article covers the bread itself, because everything built on it inherits its structure. The defining trait is lamination: thin sheets of dough separated by a flour-and-oil paste so the bread bakes up in distinct flaky layers under a crisp sesame crust, light enough to split cleanly without crushing.
The craft is in the fold and the bake. A wheat dough is rolled thin, brushed with an oil-and-flour roux, then folded and rolled repeatedly so the fat creates many separate strata; it is shaped into rounds or rectangles, the top wetted and pressed firmly into sesame seeds so they stick and toast. Traditionally it is baked against the wall of a hot clay oven, where it puffs and the layers set crisp; some kitchens griddle one face first and finish covered, others bake straight through. The result should be airy and structural at once. Done well the shāobing has a thin, shatter-crisp, sesame-studded shell, an interior of fine flaky sheets that pull apart cleanly, and enough internal space to be split and packed without compressing into bread paste. Done poorly the failure modes show plainly: skip or skimp the oil lamination and it bakes into a dense solid bun with no layers; under-bake it and the center stays gummy and tears instead of flaking; over-bake or over-griddle it and it dries into a hard cracker that crumbles rather than holding a filling; under-press the sesame and the seeds fall off the moment it is handled.
From there it shifts by shape, by fat, and by purpose. Round and rectangular forms exist side by side; a richer dough or more lamination yields a flakier, more delicate bread, a leaner one a sturdier wrap built to be stuffed. Sweet versions fold sugar or paste into the layers; savory ones stay plain so they can carry meat or egg. Where the bread is split and filled, that assembly is its own preparation: the egg-stuffed form, the pork-tenderloin form, and the meat-baked-in ròu shāobing each deserve their own article rather than being crowded in here. The point of plain shāobing is structural generosity, a layered, sesame-crusted shell built on purpose to be split and filled while staying crisp.