Stone Backed Bread

Stone Backed Bread also called “Bobo”, is local flavor food in Shaanxi province. It wins the name because of its cooking way—bake round dough on the heated small round stones. As Stone Backed Bread has a long history and keeps a primitive cooking way, it is considered as the “living fossil” in Chinese food.

Stone Backed Bread

The major characteristic of Stone Backed Bread is that it would not go bad in a long time even in summer. There is a little tale about the feature of it. It is said that Stone Backed Bread was taken as a tribute by Tongzhou(now is called Dali County) people in Tang dynasty. Because the common characteristics of Tongzhou people being strong, firm, honest and frank, they seemed to easily offend the government so when they were put into jail the Stone Backed Bread was the necessary stuff to them—starvation will not happen to them because they can eat the Stone Backed Bread to survive.

The cooking procedures are not difficult but a little complicated. Firstly, make dough. Add some oil, fresh pepper leaves, an egg, water and salt or sugar (according to personal taste) into flour and knead the mixture into dough. Keep kneading until it becomes smooth and non-sticky. Secondly, divide the dough into small round ones and roll them out until they are thin. Thirdly, wash and dry the small stones prepared in advance. Toss them in oil then stir them up and heat the stones in the pan. Fourthly, keep half of stones in the pan and the rest in another container. Later, put the small thin dough on the stones and cover them with other stones in reserve, heat them with middle fire until the Stone Backed Breads are done. The Stone Backed Bread is golden, crisp and rich in nutrition which brings it great fame and favor in not only local people but also overseas.