Name: Hotteok Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 300ml Lukewarm water (1 1/4 cup); 2 tbsp Granulated sugar; 2 tsp Instant yeast; 1 tbsp Vegetable oil; 1 tsp Salt; 300g All-purpose flour (2 1/2 cups); 35g Glutinous rice flour (1/4 cup); 35g Sesame seeds (1/4 cup); 35g Peanuts, sunflower seeds or pepitas (1/4 cup); 90g Brown sugar (1/2 cup); 100g Granulated sugar (1/2 cup); 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

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A classic Korean street food, hotteok is a delicious fried Korean-style sweet pancake filled with brown sugar syrup, nuts, and seeds.

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What is Hotteok?
Ingredients to make hotteok
Tips for better hotteok
Serving ideas
Frequently Asked Questions
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

What is Hotteok?

Hotteok is a popular Korean street food brought to South Korea by Chinese immigrants in the 1920s. This traditional Korean filled pancake is made from a yeasted dough containing flour, water, milk, and sugar.

This dough is then filled with a brown sugar filling. Some of the most common variations include brown sugar, honey, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and cinnamon.

These balls of dough are then shallow fried to golden, crispy perfection. Their flat and round shape are shaped using a circular, flat stainless steel tool that is used to press the dough down onto the griddle as they fry.

The resulting pancake is served hot with a crisp exterior and molten brown sugar interior. These Korean sweet pancakes are perfect as a snack on a cold day!

Hotteok Korean sweet honey pancakes filled with sesame and peanuts

Other kinds of hotteok

While the traditional hotteok is made with brown sugar cinnamon filling there are so many newer variations of hotteok. A couple of popular variations include cheese hotteok, pizza hotteok, and yachae hotteok which is filled with Korean glass noodles and vegetables.

As the dough is so versatile there are so many different ways to fill them. You can use this hotteok recipe as a base and fill them with whatever filling you like.

Ingredients to make hotteok

The ingredients needed to make hotteok are fairly simple and should be in most pantries with the exception of glutinous rice flour. That being said it's so easy to find, so you'll be up and cooking these in no time.

Dough

Lukewarm water: Make sure your water is lukewarm and not too hot or cold. This is the perfect temperature for yeast to work and bring air to your dough.
Granulated sugar: Sugar is fuel for yeast, giving them the energy to produce gas and proof the dough.

Instant yeast: I like to use instant yeast as it doesn't need to be activated to be used. If you don't have instant yeast feel free to use active dry yeast, just make sure you activate it in the water and sugar for 5 minutes until bubbly before using it
Oil: Oil adds suppleness to the dough and helps it crisp up. Try using a neutral oil like vegetable or canola which won't add flavor to the dough.

Filling

Sesame seeds: Sesame seeds add a nutty fragrance to the filling. If you aren't a fan feel free to leave them out.
Peanuts, sunflower seeds, or pepitas: Take your pick or use a mix of them all. My personal favorite is a mix of peanuts and sunflower seeds.
Brown sugar: Brown sugar gives the filling a delicious caramelized flavor.

Granulated sugar: Using a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar prevents the filling from getting too dark while still maintaining the caramelized brown sugar flavor.
Cinnamon powder: Cinnamon adds flavor to the sweet syrupy filling and works so well with the other nutty flavors.

Tips for better hotteok

Add glutinous rice flour to the dough

Most hotteok recipes won't use glutinous rice flour, instead using all all-purpose flour. I like to use glutinous rice flour for two reasons:

Adds extra chew to the dough: The glutinous rice flour gives the pancake a chewy, mochi-like texture.
Adds crispiness to the dough: Rice flour crisps up a lot better than regular flour, this will give your pancakes that nice crunchy crust.

Allow the batter to proof and rest

The dough doesn't need much mixing to come together.

Unlike making bread where the gluten is developed through kneading and resting, this dough only needs a good rest and proof to create sufficient air and structure for frying.

This process will result in a more flavourful and light dough.

Press down as you fry

The technique you use when frying hotteok is just as important as the making process.

When frying the hotteok make sure you press down on top of the dough with a greased spatula. This increases the surface area that has contact with the surface of the pan, increasing the color and crispiness.

It also helps to form that flat circular shape.

Serving ideas

There are so many different ways to serve them.

One of my absolute favorites is to cut it open and fill it with ice cream. I discovered this option when I lived in South Korea for university. The best combination of hot and crunchy with cold and creamy.

A few other options are:

Fill with other nuts like almonds, walnuts, or hazelnuts
Roll them in kkongkaru aka soybean powder for a nutty flavor
Change the brown sugar filling for cheese, or really any filling of your choice!

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do these last?

These are best when freshly fried as they are crisp on the outside and the sugar inside is hot and molten.

You can leave the batter covered with plastic wrap in your fridge for up to 3 days. When you're ready to eat one simply take out a portion, fill it with the brown sugar filling and fry!

How do I reheat hotteok?

If you don't want to keep the batter in the fridge you can fry them all at once and reheat them later.

You can reheat them in a hot pan, flipping occasionally until warmed through and crisp. However, my favorite way to reheat them is in the air fryer. The air fryer heats the exterior evenly, it'll be almost as good as freshly fried.

Can I freeze hotteok?

If you've made them in advance you can wrap them and freeze them. When ready to heat just thaw and heat in an oiled pan or toast in your oven/air fryer.

Why is my hotteok so oily?

There are a couple of reasons why your hotteok is so oily:

The oil/pan wasn't hot enough: This causes the hotteok to absorb oil as it fries.
The hotteok wasn't drained: Make sure you put the finished hotteok on a paper towel or wire rack to drain any excess oil after they've fried. Otherwise, they'll absorb all the extra oil.

Let's Get Cooking

If you liked this recipe make sure to leave me a comment and rating down below, I would love to know how you went. Also don't forget to tag me on Instagram @catherine.desserts so I can see and share your desserts.

Follow me on facebook, pinterest, youtube and tiktok for more of my baking creations and updates! Until next time... happy caking!

Hotteok (Korean Sweet Pancakes)