Hotteok

A yeasted dough filled with sugar and nuts and pressed flat in the pan with an oiled lid, so the filling melts to a syrup.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk).

Ingredients

For the dough

• 250 g plain flour
• 50 g glutinous rice flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 g fast-action yeast
• 200 ml warm milk
• 1 tablespoon oil

For the filling

• 100 g dark brown sugar
• 50 g walnuts or peanuts, chopped small
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon crushed sunflower seeds, optional

To cook

• 4 tablespoons oil

Method

1. IT IS PRESSED FLAT IN THE PAN WITH AN OILED LID, or the base of an oiled cup. Dropped in as a ball and left, it cooks as a bun with a pocket of dry sugar in the middle. Pressed down to a disc about a centimetre thick straight after it goes in, the filling spreads into a thin layer and melts to a syrup across the whole thing -- which is the point of hotteok and the reason it must be eaten with care.
2. AND THE PRESS MUST BE OILED, every time. The dough sticks to it instantly otherwise and tears open, and the molten sugar comes out into the pan and burns.
3. THE GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR IS A FIFTH OF THE FLOUR and is what makes it chewy rather than bready. Plain flour alone gives a soft pancake that is perfectly nice and has none of the pull that this should have.
4. THE FILLING IS PUT IN COLD AND DRY, and the dough sealed completely round it with wet fingers, pinched shut and then rolled seam-down in the palm. Any gap and the sugar finds it.
5. THE SUGAR BECOMES MOLTEN AND IS GENUINELY DANGEROUS for a minute or two after cooking. Worth saying on the page rather than leaving someone to find out: let them stand two minutes before biting.
6. Flours, sugar, salt and yeast mixed. The warm milk and oil added and stirred to a soft sticky dough.
7. Kneaded briefly in the bowl -- it is too wet for a surface -- then covered and risen 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES until doubled.
8. The filling ingredients mixed in a bowl and kept DRY.
9. The dough knocked back with an oiled hand and divided into 8 with oiled fingers.
10. Each piece flattened in an oiled palm, a tablespoon of filling placed in the middle, and the edges gathered up and PINCHED SHUT completely. Rolled seam-down.
11. A heavy pan over a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil.
12. Two at a time, seam down, cooked 1 minute.
13. Turned, and IMMEDIATELY PRESSED FLAT with an oiled lid or cup base to about 1 cm thick.
14. Cooked 2 minutes, turned once more and given 1 to 2 minutes, until both sides are deep gold.
15. Lifted out and RESTED 2 MINUTES before eating, because the filling is molten. More oil added for each batch.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes