Raw materials:

[japonica rice] [brown sugar] [osmanthus fragrans]

Account description:

Beijing traditional snacks. Dry cakes with sugar are white in color, distinct in layers, loose in texture, soft but not sticky, sweet and delicious.

Production method:

Cleaning japonica rice, soaking in cold water for two hours, draining, grinding into flour, and sieving to obtain rice flour; Put the rice noodles in a cage, steam them over high fire until they are half cooked, take them out and rub them into lumps with your hands, and then put them in a thick basket. Crushing broken brown sugar, osmanthus fragrans and a little rice flour into fine powder to make fine sugar stuffing; Spread a dry drawer cloth in the cage, put a dry cake bottle, pour the rice flour into the steamer and spread it out, gently scrape the spread rice flour with a small slice, then spread the brown sugar stuffing on it, pour the remaining rice flour on the brown sugar stuffing, and gently move it back and forth with photons after scraping to make the rice flour smooth and smooth; Put the wooden ruler on the steamer, cut the cake into twenty-five squares with a thin knife, take off the steamer and steam it on a boiling pot for half an hour.

The history of dry cakes

Yangcun dry cake, also known as Poria cocos dry cake, is produced in Yangcun, Wuqing, Tianjin. Don't underestimate this small food with simple packaging, ordinary materials and unsightly appearance. It once had a glorious history. At that time, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty visited Yangcun in the south and personally tasted the dried cake of Wanquantang, which made him feel very happy. He personally paid tribute to provide southern high-quality rice as raw material. Emperor Qianlong also wrote four characters in calligraphy: "Women and children are good things". At the 1930 Panama World Expo, Yangcun dry cake conquered foreigners with white skin and yellow hair with its unique taste, won the bronze medal of "Golden Harvest" and became the earliest snack in China to enter the international market. During the period of 1958, Premier Zhou Enlai hosted Cambodian guests with Yangcun cake at a tea party, which was praised by Prince Sihanouk.

It is said that during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the Dujia brothers who moved from Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province to Yangcun saw that Yangcun was busy with water transportation, and most of the shippers who came and went were southerners whose staple food was rice, so they had a brainwave and made rice into noodles with reference to the eating habits of southerners, steamed them into cakes with white sugar and sold them along the street. Sure enough, boatmen and trackers from the south taste very smooth, and dry cakes are very popular because they are easy to carry and store. After the local people tasted it, they were full of praise, so the Du family's dry cakes became famous and their business gradually flourished. From generation to generation, they made and sold dry cakes with family-handed craftsmanship. Later, the business grew bigger and bigger. The Du family opened a shop called "Wanquantang" in Yangcun, and a signboard was erected at the door, which read "Two years of Yongle, three generations of ancestors". Later, as a tribute, the dried cake was selected into the palace and praised by the emperor. The reputation of Yangcun dry cake spread like wildfire, with exquisite and elegant production technology, soft and glutinous taste, easy digestion, and the effect of strengthening the spleen and nourishing the stomach. Its effect is no less than that of traditional Chinese medicine Poria cocos. Therefore, businessmen passing by Yangcun should buy some gifts for relatives and friends. Wanquantang's business volume has soared, and it is overwhelmed. Du's relatives have also set up stalls and shops, vying to do pastry business. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were five or six dry cake houses opened by Du Fu, such as Wanquantang, Wanjintang, Wanshengtang, Wanyuantang and Wanshuntang, and there were at most a dozen dry cake houses opened by people with other surnames. These dry cakes are exported to all parts of the country, and people collectively call them Yangcun dry cakes.

After several ups and downs, Yangcun cake disappeared during the Cultural Revolution. 1984, Yangcun resumed the production of "Wanquantang" old-fashioned dried poria cocos cakes, and hired Du's descendants to operate them, so Yangcun dried cakes regained their former prosperity. Every four pieces of Yangcun dry cakes are wrapped in white paper. The dry cakes are flat or square, each piece has a net weight of 75g, and they are packed in plastic bags. The label is "Golden Harvest" bronze medal pattern obtained in Panama Games. Now, authentic Yangcun cakes can be bought in many shops in Wuqing and downtown Tianjin.