Korean – Hotteok / Korean Sweet Pancakes

by Evelyn Brutz

As when you are talking about Korean street food, one word that comes to mind is Hotteok. Hotteok is a very popular Korean pancake with stuffing inside the cakes. Stuffing can be chocolate, peanuts, cinnamon, nuts, coconut, brown sugar, honey. This snack is like a crispy and solid layer having fillings inside. It is everyone’s favorite winter snack. The warm and sweet taste gives coziness to the mouth and admires the taste.

This is also known by the other name, Hoddoek, Hoduk and hottok.

Pancakes are usually round and thin made up with the same cake mixture on the pan. This hotteok is a Korean form of pancake that is round but usually thick because of having stuffing in it. The mixture of pancakes are made up with the same cake ingredients like flour, eggs, butter, some flavors to add ( vanilla, chocolate, strawberry )

There is a difference between normal and Korean pancakes. Hotteok is shallowly sauteed in butter to make it crispy from the outside. So this makes a difference in Korean Hotteok / pancakes. Normal pancakes are very soft and cooked on a non-stick pan without butter. This makes them softer and fluffy.

HISTORY

This snack dish is first time introduce in 1927. It was the time of the Chinese when settled in Korea. It is known as Poor’s cake or Barbarian Rice Cake. This is also known by the name, ‘‘JINA BREAD” that means Chinese bread or Bread from China.

The place of Origin of hotteok is INCHEON, North western South Korea.

There are many Korean Phrases having the word, HOTTEOK :

THE HOTTEOK STORE IS BURNING

PANCAKES and HOTTEOK

Pancakes are a very famous snack or desserts around the world. Every country has made its own variant of pancakes. The normal and authentic pancakes are also known as Girdle cake, flapjack, hotcake, etc. This is the same as the cake but in different textures and forms. The sponginess and softness of the cake remain the same in the pancakes.

When we are talking about Hotteok, they are more towards the thick side than pancakes and they usually have some filling and stuffing inside. It also has a crispy layer on both sides. The dough is made more thick and solid than cake batter. Then during cooking, some butter is added to make a crispy effect. That is the specialty of hotteok.

There are following differences between pancakes and hotteok :

Pancakes are more soft and spongy like a cake.	Hotteok are towards the crispy side and having like fried brown color on the top.
Pancake’s batter is very liquidy like a cake batter	For Hotteok, a dough is made with having the same ingredient but in a different ratio.
Pancakes are made in non-stick pans with little butter to grease.	Hotteok is made by adding a spoon of butter for crispy and fried effect.
Pancakes are thin and round.	Hotteok is a thick round Patti that is mostly filled with stuffing.
Pancakes batter is using the same ingredients as the cake.	Hotteok is using the same ingredients with different proportions.

PREPRATION OF HOTTEOK

The dough of hotteok is prepared first for the Korean pancakes. The dough is prepared by adding some ingredients to cakes like flour, eggs, butter, sugar, etc. The proportions of the ingredients are different to get a solid consistency like a dough. In this snack, yeast is added. Yeast is added to raise the dough and make it more fluffy and spongy.

There are some toppings and stuffing are added to make it more tasty and unique.

Toppings

• Brown Sugar
• Caster Sugar
• Honey
• Almonds
• Peanuts
• Pine nuts
• Cinnamon
• Sesame seeds
• Chocolate chips

Stuffing

There are many stuffing are made some are towards more fancy side.

• Apple marmalade
• Honey
• Fresh fruits
• Dried fruits
• Chocolates
• Cashew
• Raisins
• Dates, etc.

VARIATIONS OF THE DISH

There are two main varieties of this dish. One is the sweeter version and other is like salty and spicy version with meat and vegetable stuffing.

SWEET HOTTEOK

• Chocolate hotteok :

• Nuts hotteok :

• Caramelized Apple Hotteok

• Ice-cream hotteok

SALTY / SPICY HOTTEOK

Pizza Hotteok

Noodles hotteok

CALORIES IN HOTTEOK

There are 230 calories in each simple hotteok.

• Carbohydrates : 28 grams
• protein : 6 grams
• Fat : 10 grams

INGREDIENTS FOR 8 HOTTEOK

• Plain all purpose Flour : 2 cups
• White sugar : 4 tablespoons
• Salt : 1/4 teaspoon
• Butter : 8 tablespoons
• Eggs : 2
• Dry instant yeast : 1 tablespoons
• Baking powder : 1 teaspoon

FOR STUFFING

• Brown sugar : 1/2 cup
• Honey : 2 tablespoons
• Peanuts : 2 tablespoons
• Raisins : 2 tablespoons
• Sunflower seeds : 2 tablespoons
• Almonds : 2 tablespoons
• Milk : 4 tablespoons

COOKING METHOD

• Sieve plain flour for two or three times to make it more fluffy and light, then add sugar, salt, butter, eggs and knead it with milk if required.
• To activate yeast, add warm water and 1 teaspoon of sugar together and put it in warm area.
• Add activated yeast after 5 minutes into dough mixture and knead it.
• Now after 5 minutes of kneading, put this dough into warm temperature and make sure it to rise.
• It takes around 20 to 30 minutes, for the dough to rise and airy.
• On other side we have to prepare your stuffing and cool it down.
• Take Non-stick pan and add brown sugar at minimal temperature to melts it.
• Add all the nuts with honey and mixed properly to make a sticky nutty filling.
• Now make sure to cool it down before stuffing into dough.
• Take out the raised dough and make around 8 balls of it. Spread the balls with hand to add filling into the dough and seal it with the corners.
• 1 tablespoon of stuffing id enough for each dough ball.
• Now roll it to make a flat shape like a thick pancake.
• For cooking, take a flat pan and add butter of 1 tablespoon and put this flat pancake over the pan.
• Cooking must be on minimal heat to avoid uncooked batter.
• Make sure to give color on each side and serve.