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Hotteok: Korean Sweet Pancakes

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
Unlike Western pancakes, the Korean pancake hotteok is made with leavened dough. A portion of the dough is rolled flat, filled with a mixture of crushed toasted nuts and sugar, formed into a bun, fried and flattened in the pan.
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Rising time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 20 minutes
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine Korean
Servings 10 pancakes
Hotteok (Korean pancakes with sweet filling)

Ingredients
  

For the bread dough:

For the filling:

  • nuts any kind (I used pili)
  • cup brown sugar firmly packed
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions
 

  • Pour a cup of lukewarm water into a mixing bowl.
  • Add the yeast, sugar, salt and oil. Stir.
  • Dump in the flour. Mix just until the dough comes together.
  • Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise until double in volume.
  • Sprinkle flour on the work surface. Dump the dough on the floured area. Knead for about two minutes. Put back in the bowl and leave to rise while you prepare the filling.
  • In an oil-free pan, toast the nuts until glistening with their own oil. Cool then chop — finely or coarsely, that is up to you.
    Toasting nuts in an oil-free pan
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  • Stir the chopped nuts into the sugar mixture.
  • Take the dough out of the bowl and form into a log. Cut into eight to 10 equal pieces.
  • Take a piece of dough, flatten between your hands, fill with about two heaping teaspoonfuls of the nut-sugar mixture, gather the edges then pinch to seal.
  • Repeat for the rest of the dough and filling.
  • Heat half a teaspoonful of oil in a pan. Lower a piece of filled dough. Cook over medium heat for about 30 seconds. Flip. Drizzle in another half a teaspoonful of oil.
    Collage showing the process of frying hotteok (hoddeok), Korean sweet pancake
  • Using the back of a spatula, flatten the dough to about half an inch thick.
  • Cover the pan and cook the pancake for a minute.
  • Uncover, flip and cook for another half a minute.
  • Repeat until all the pancakes are cooked. Note that, if you have a large frying pan, you can cook more than one pancake at a time.
  • Serve the hoddeok (hotteok) as soon as they are done. That’s when they are at their very best.

Notes

Inspired by a recipe from Maangchi.
Updated from a recipe originally published in May 14, 2013.
Keyword Pancake