hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to Korean classics with a shot at an iconic Korean street food dish, which is a sweet stuffed pancake, or “hotteok.” For those unfamiliar, the korean hotteok pancake is comprised of a yeasted dough made with milk and flour, which is then kneaded and stuffed most iconically with peanuts, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
At this point those of you that have been following along with this channel for a while now should know that any time that we come across a culinary concept this simple, it also presents us with the opportunity to do some weird, cultural mishmashing, which is to say, you can put whatever you want into a hotteok, so, let’s have some fun with that. Finally rounding this out, we’ll also be taking a look at my favorite smash and fry method for cooking these bad boys up, courtesy of some inspiration from one of my favorite Bay Area pop ups right now, which is Sammy’s Hodduk, who essentially shallow fries these things to achieve that perfect, uniform browning. Hope you try it.
Yields 12
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (or milk)
1 tbsp (1 packet) dry active yeast
2 tbsp white sugar
3 cups AP flour
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (filling)
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
PREP
ADD the peanuts to a zip lock bag, then crush with a meat hammer
COMBINE the peanuts with the remaining filling ingredients, then set aside
COMBINE the cream, dry active yeast, and sugar, then let proof for 10 minutes until bubbles form
GRADUALLY ADD the AP flour until a cohesive dough forms, then cover with plastic wrap and set aside in an oven with the oven light on to proof for 2 hours
DIVIDE the proofed dough into 12 equal pieces, then form into a pancake 2-4 inches in diameter with your hands
ADD 2 tbsp filling to the center and pinch shut, then roll into an even ball shape
GENTLY FLATTEN the dough balls into small pancake shapes and set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a round bottom wok over medium heat, then add 1/2 cup peanut oil and long yao
ADD the pancakes one at a time to the round center of the wok and shallow for 2 minutes on the first side, then flip and smash using the flat side of a spatula
FRY for an additional 2 minutes on the second side until golden brown