A laminated honey-malt pastry from Xuzhou, deep-fried until blistered gold and sealed in a cooling syrup glaze — its surface scored with three parallel knife lines, a form Su Dongpo is said to have named on the spot in 1077.
In 1077, Su Shi (Su Dongpo) was serving as magistrate of Xuzhou when he spent an afternoon at the Cloud Dragon Mountain pavilion testing a new sword against a riverside stone, leaving three deep scores. Servants arrived with pastries, among them a freshly made honey cake also bearing three knife lines on its surface. Asked to name it, Su pointed at the shared feature and called it "Honey Three-Knife" on the spot. Xuzhou pastry shops disseminated the recipe through the centuries. Folk tradition holds that Emperor Qianlong praised the pastry during one of his Qing-dynasty southern tours and reputedly inscribed it "Xuzhou's greatest, imperial tribute" — though no contemporaneous record of this survives. The Taikang halal shop, established in Xuzhou in the late Qing dynasty around 1908, became the confection's most celebrated producer and continues to make it today.
The glaze shatters like a sugar window at first bite — then the soft, malt-sweet interior gives way, leaving a faint sesame fragrance and the clean brightness of osmanthus on the palate.
Two doughs — a plain water-oil shell and a denser malt-syrup filling — are laminated and deep-fried at 165°C. The malt layer's higher sugar content causes faster Maillard browning and internal caramelization, while the outer shell puffs and blisters. The syrup glaze is cooked to 114°C (soft-ball stage), where sucrose and maltose form an amorphous glass on cooling; maltose's lower tendency to recrystallize keeps the coat glossy and non-sticky long after cooling.
Variations
Closely related versions exist in Tianjin (shorter pieces, darker glaze) and Shandong's Jinxiang and Qingzhou counties (thicker sesame coating). The Taikang shop in Xuzhou uses vegetable oil throughout for a halal-compliant version; other producers use lard for a richer, more crumbly crumb.
On the Palate
Where Honey Three-Knife Pastry sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
7 steps · 1 hour 6 min active + 20 min waiting
- 120 min
Make malt dough: combine wheat flour with warm malt syrup and a little vegetable oil; knead until smooth, cover and rest 20 minutes.
- 220 min
Make water-oil dough: combine wheat flour with water and vegetable oil into a pliable, non-sticky dough; rest alongside for 20 minutes.
- 310 min
Roll each dough into a rectangle of equal size about 5 mm thick; lay the malt dough on the water-oil dough, scatter white sesame seeds across the surface, press together firmly, then roll the laminated sheet to about 3 mm.
- 410 min
Cut the laminated sheet into small rectangular blocks roughly the size of a mahjong tile; score three shallow parallel cuts across the top of each piece without cutting through to the base.
- 58 min
Heat cooking oil to 165°C; deep-fry pieces in batches until pale golden and floating on the surface, about 4 minutes; lift out and drain on a rack.
Watch outFry at a steady oil temperature until the pieces float pale gold — too hot and the sesame scorches before the inside cooks, too cool and they drink oil and go greasy.
- 68 min
Dissolve white sugar in water in a clean pan; add malt syrup and dried osmanthus; heat to 114°C (soft-ball stage) and hold just below boiling.
Watch outCook the syrup to soft-ball — a drop in cold water forms a soft pliable ball; go past it and the glaze turns brittle and clouds instead of staying glossy.
- 710 min
Add the fried pieces to the hot syrup and turn to coat evenly; lift onto a rack and let the glaze cool to a glossy, non-sticky shell before serving.
Watch outToss off the heat and lift out the moment every piece is coated — leave them sitting in the pan and the sugar keeps cooking and sets sticky and dull.
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