Hotteok: Korean Sweet Pancake
Hotteok, or Korean sweet pancake, is filled with gooey cinnamon sugar and nuts, accompanied with a light crisp and a pleasant chewiness. It's one of Korea's most popular street snacks and desserts.
- Prep time
- 5 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1¼ cup all-purpose flour ((about 150g))
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- ⅔ cup warm water ((about 158mL))
- oil (, as needed for pan frying ( or any neutral frying oil))
- ⅓ cup brown sugar (, packed (light or dark))
- ¼ cup walnut (, chopped (or your preferred nuts))
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ((or more to your preference))
Instructions
- 1
In a medium mixing bowl, combined all of the ingredients and mix until no more dry flour is visible. Cover and let it proof in a warm area until doubled, about 40 minutes to 1 hour.*This dough will be very wet, so feel free to use a spatula if you prefer.*
- 2
While waiting for the dough to double, combined all of the ingredients for the filling in a wide bowl and give it a mix. Set aside until needed.*It's up to you what nuts you prefer, we normally use walnuts but sometimes we like to use assorted nuts. Also, I highly recommend a wider bowl because it'll be less messy when filling the dough.*
- 3
Once the dough has doubled, knead it back to it's original size and let it rest for 10-20 minutes.
- 4
In a medium pan, add enough vegetable oil to generously cover the entire bottom of the pan. Heat on medium low heat.
- 5
With gloved hands, grease the gloves with some vegetable oil. Pinch off ⅙ of the dough (roughly a 1½ to 2 inch ball). Flatten the dough in your palm to about ¼ inch thick. Pack about 1½ to 2 TBSP of filling into the center of the dough, then pinch together the edges to seal the dough.*Refer to the post for picture reference of the dough filling process! Also, highly highly recommend wearing gloves and greasing those gloves. They will tremendously help with the wet dough.*
- 6
Place the dough, seam side down into the oil and flatten immediately with a well greased hotteok press or spatula. Let the hottoek fry until golden brown on one side, then flip to let the other side fry until golden as well, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the hotteok from the oil and let it cool for a few minutes. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.*If the hotteok browns too quickly, lower the heat slightly.*
- 7
Enjoy the hotteok while hot, but be careful of the extremely hot brown sugar syrup on the inside!