Hotteok: all the goodness of doughnuts, cinnamon rolls and pancakes in one
At first glance, it looks like a deep-fried pita, but as soon as you bite into it, it’s so much better. Meet hotteok: a South Korean pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts.
Hotteok is essentially a mix of a doughnut, cinnamon roll and pancake, which is why it seems like the ultimate comfort food to us. This treat is filled with cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts like a cinnamon roll, deep-fried like a doughnut and as flat as a pancake. It’s a popular street food snack in South Korea, and at the stall you get it straight in your hand to eat.
How it’s made
The dough is made from rice flour, flour, yeast, water, sugar and salt. The filling consists of brown sugar, cinnamon powder and a type of nut such as peanuts or walnuts. In South Korea, they usually use peanuts because they’re the cheapest.
Sweet filling
When the snack is deep-fried, the sugar melts together with the cinnamon. The nuts provide a lovely crunch. With the first bite, you may get only dough, but before you know it you’ll reach the sweet filling—and watch out: it’s scorching hot, so beware of a bitterballen-burned-palate fiasco. If you make them at home (here’s how!), you can of course also melt a nice knob of butter over them or drizzle the hotteok with syrup or icing sugar. Mmmmm…
