Hotteok

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Korean food has been a top favorite of mine since the 80s. When I went in 1987 I only had excellent restaurant food but sadly never tried their street food. I'm still discovering lots of yummy Korean dishes with the help of food blogs and of course YouTube where I saw a favorite street food called hotteok, a fried pancake filled with brown sugar. They look very similar to the Filipino piaya but with different dough ingredients. 

The crunchy crust and soft chewy pancakes are really delicious and they're not too sweet. I love the combination of brown sugar, nuts, and cinnamon. I can easily get addicted to these. Next time I'll fill them with kimchi or mixed vegetables.

A round tool with handle is used to flatten the cakes while frying; a large spatula will do the job as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Korean_snack-Hotteok-01.jpg

I used the removable insert of a small chiffon cake pan and covered it with nonstick aluminum foil. It doesn't have a long handle but it worked for me.

Hotteok

dough

2 cups all purpose flour

1½ cups glutinous rice flour

1 tablespoon black sesame seeds

1½ teaspoons instant yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1½ cups lukewarm milk

1 teaspoon light olive oil

 filling

2/3 cup fine golden raw or light brown sugar

2 tablespoon finely chopped peanuts or other nuts of your choice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

cooking hottoek

light olive oil 

• Whisk together flours, yeast, sesame seeds, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add milk and oil and stir with a rubber spatula until completely mixed. The dough will be very sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and keep the bowl in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in volume. Deflate the risen dough, cover with plastic, and let rest for another 10 minutes.
• Mix together sugar, nuts, and cinnamon in asmall bowl.

• Put 2 tablespoons of oil in a small bowl.  
• With gloved hands, dip fingers in oil. With greased hands, cut a 2-inch piece of dough and stretch out on the palm of one hand. Place 1 tablespoon of filling mixture in the center and pinch the edges of the dough toward the center to close making a ball shape. Place on a greased surface. Repeat with the rest of dough and filling.
• Heat a skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium heat and add a generous amount of oil. Place a dough ball and push it down with spatula to flatten it. When the surface puffs up slightly, flip to the other side and continue to cook adding more oil if needed, until it has a nice golden brown crust. Let cool for a few minutes before serving as the filling will be very hot.

great with a glass of ice cold milky green tea

Here's a cute video explaining the origin of the word hotteok which means barbarian's pancake.