Scallion Pancake (蔥油餅)

This is something I learned to make from my parents when I was young.  My own kids in turn learned how to make this when they were little.  It's a great family activity!

1. Place 4 cups of all purpose flour in a large mixing bowl. Stir in 1.5 cups of hot water (~200-deg-F, hissing but not boiling yet) gradually with a pair of chopsticks, then stir in 0.5 cup of room temperature water, and 0.4 cup of vegetable oil. Knead the dough in the mixing bowl till its surface is smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Note- We used the KitchenAid Mixer with a dough hook at its lowest speed to knead the dough till it surface is smooth, for 6-7 minutes (stopped every couple of minutes to scrape the dough off of the hook, and started kneading again).  Note- This is exactly the same as the dough used in Beef Xian Bing.  The dough left from making Beef Xian Bing can be used to make Scallion Pancake.  Add an egg and 1/4 tsp of baking soda and replace the 0.4 cup of vegetable oil with Crisco Shortening before mixing, for added fluffiness, when making a dough from scratch.
2. Place the dough on a flour-dusted kneading board, cut the dough in half. Work on one half of the dough first, by cutting it into 6 roughly even parts (doses). Each dose needs to be rolled into a round-shaped skin that is 6-8" in diameter (see leftmost picture below). Note- If we roll the rolling pin along the edge of the skin with one hand in an up-and-down motion, while turning the dose in counter-clockwise motion with the other hand handling the dose with the thumb on top and the other 4 fingers underneath, we can roll the dose into a round in 15-20 seconds. It takes some practice, but quite doable.
3. Brush a thin layer of vegetable oil evenly on the round-shaped skin, sprinkle 1/4 tsp of salt evenly, then sprinkle finely chopped scallion (about 1 stalk for each pancake, see middle picture below). Roll it up, while pressing both ends tightly and pulling both ends out as we roll (similar to the techniques used in Step 3 of the Sesame-Paste Biscuit, to create a longer roll).   Twist and spiral up the long roll as shown in the rightmost picture.  
   
4. Press the spiral from  top down with your hand, and continue to press with the fingertips of both hands, to flatten the spiral and to form a 6" pancake (~1/4" thick).  Note- Use a rolling pin instead of both hands could work as well, but a rolling pin could easily squeeze the oil out of the now puffy soon-to-be-a-pancake spiral. 
5. (Medium Heat) In a 10-12" frying pan, heat 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil, Place two pancakes side-by-side in the pan (cover the lid).  Cook until the surface is golden, but not brown (~3 minutes).  Flip and cook till the other side is golden.  Add 2-3 Tbsp of water into the pan, cover the lid, and cook till the water evaporates (2-3 minutes, and the surface is golden brown).  Repeat the process for the other side of the pancake.  The finished product is shown below.