Korea's Sweet Pancake

Hotteok 호떡

Hotteok is a variety of filled Korean pancake, and is a popular street food of South Korea. It is usually eaten during the winter season.

The dough for hotteok is made from wheat flour, water, milk, sugar, and yeast. The dough is allowed to rise for several hours. Handful-sized balls of this stiff dough are filled with a sweet mixture, which may contain brown sugar, honey, chopped peanuts, and cinnamon. The filled dough is then placed on a greased griddle, and pressed flat into a large circle with a special tool with a stainless steel circle and wooden handle as it cooks. In South Korea, ready-made dry hotteok mix is commercially available in plastic packages. The mix also comes with a filling consisting of brown sugar and ground peanuts or sesame seeds.

It is generally believed that hotteok originated from Chinese merchants who immigrated to Korea after the late 19th century. Unlike many Chinese pancakes, which often contain savory meat fillings, hotteok are stuffed with sweet fillings, to suit Koreans' tastes.

The types of hotteok have been changing continuously although many favour the traditional cinnamon and peanut filling. Many variations have developed since the early 21st century, such as green tea hotteok, pink bokbunja hotteok, corn hotteok, and more. Commercial "hotteok" products are developed and sold by companies "Samyang", "Ottogi" and "CJ". The products are designed to be able to cook at home. Hotteok is usually eaten during the winter season. Due to its high sugar content, a single hotteok may have as many as 230 calories.

Ingredients:

Flour

water

dry yeast

salt

vegetable oil

sugar

brown sugar

walnuts

cinnamon powder

Directions:

Make hotteok dough:

1. Place 1 cup of lukewarm water into a mixing bowl.
2. Add 2 tbs white sugar, 2 ts yeast, ½ ts salt, 1 tbs vegetable oil, and stir it well.
3. Add 2 cups of all purpose flour and mix it with a rice scoop, or by hand.
4. Let the dough rise. It should sit with the lid closed at room temperature for 1 hour.
5. After an hour the dough will rise to double its size. Knead it to remove the gas bubbles in the dough.
6. Let it rise for another 10-20 minutes.
7. Make filling (for 8 hotteok):
   1. Mix ½ cup brown sugar, 1 ts cinnamon powder, and 2 tbs chopped walnuts in a bowl.
      *tip: you could use mozzarella cheese for stuffing. Invent your own fillings with your favorite ingredients!

Let’s make hotteok!

1. Knead the dough again to remove the gas bubbles.
2. Place and spread about ½ cup flour on your cutting board.
3. Put the dough on your cutting board and knead it. Make it into a lump, and cut it into 8 equal-sized balls.
4. Take 1 dough ball, flatten it, put some filling in the center of the dough, and then seal it to make a ball.
5. Repeat this 8 times to make 8 stuffed balls.
   *tip: Use some flour from the cutting board to prevent your fingers from sticking to the dough
6. Heat up your non-stick pan over medium heat and add some vegetable oil.
7. Place 1 ball on the pan and let it cook for 30 seconds.
8. When the bottom of the dough ball is light golden brown, turn it over and press the dough with a spatula to make a thin and wide circle (about the size of a CD).
9. Let it cook about 1 minute until the bottom is golden brown.
10. Turn it over again and turn down the heat very low.
11. Place the lid on the pan and cook 1 more minute. The brown sugar filling mixture will be melted to syrup!

Gunchim O_O 군침