Last week I made hotteok, which is a Korean pancake that is usually filled with sugar and nuts.
When I posted that video on TikTok, someone in the comment section was telling me that there was a cheese version too. I NEEDED TO TRY THIS IMMEDIATELY.
These were soooo good, they crispy, chewy, warm and cheesy. I loved them.
Video Tutorial
The dough
Unlike the typical pancakes most of us are used to, Hotteok is made with a yeasted dough.
So because of this, this dough does need some time to rise.
Making the dough is super easy though, you just throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until a sticky dough forms. There’s no need to knead this, you just mix until you get a dough.
Then we are going to let it rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size. Once doubled, give it a mix, then leave it to rise for 30 minutes this time.
This is honestly the hardest part of the recipe, everything else is easy, it’s just the waiting that is hard. But it will be worth it!
Ingredients for the dough
Here are the ingredients you are going to need to make the dough:
- Plain flour – also known as all purpose flour.
- Glutinous rice flour – also known as sweet rice flour or mochiko. This is going to add some chewiness to the pancakes. MAKE SURE to use glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour is not going to give you the same results.
- Instant yeast – I used instant yeast, I find this easier because I can just add it straight into the bowl with the other ingredients. If you are using active yeast, you will need to activate it. So just mix it with your warm milk, along with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Leave this aside for about 10 minutes, until it becomes foamy, then it is ready to use.
- Granulated sugar – caster sugar works too.
- Salt – to enhance the flavours.
- Oil – I used vegetable oil but any flavourless oil works.
- Milk – whole milk gives the best results.
Can I leave out the glutinous rice flour?
Like I mentioned, the glutinous rice flour adds a slight chewiness to the pancakes.
I liked this a lot. I feel like chewy and crispy are not textures that I’ve had together in many foods before. Turns out i love it.
So I very much recommend using it.
But if you don’t have it, or can’t find it, you could leave it out. Just replace it with more plain flour.
Filling the hotteok
Once the dough has rested twice, we can start filling and cooking them.
First of all, WARNING, this dough is sticky. But this is ok we want this.
But because of this, you want to have either flour or oil next to you, to stop the dough from sticking to your counter and your hands.
I found it easier to use flour, but I think typically oil is used to prevent sticking. You can use whatever you find easiest.
To fill them, I just divided the dough into 100g pieces. Then I got one piece of dough, flattened it out, added some cheese into the centre, then folded the dough over the cheese and formed it into a ball.
You want to make sure that the cheese is fully sealed inside of the dough, we don’t want all the cheese to leak out whiles they’re cooking.
Cooking the hotteok
Cooking them is pretty easy, here’s how to do it:
- Get a pan, place this over medium heat and add a generous amount of oil to it. Let this oil heat up.
- Add the hotteok into the pan. Don’t overcrowd the pan, only cook 2-3 at a time.
- Get a spatula and slightly grease this, I just dipped it in the oil that was in the pan.
- With this spatula, slightly press the pancakes down.
- Once the bottom of them turn golden brown, flip them over and slightly press them down on this side too.
- Now cook them until they’re golden and crispy on both sides.
Repeat this until you’ve cooked them all, then eat them whiles they’re still warm and crispy.
Here are a few other recipes I’ve posted recently, I think you should try these too:
Cheese Hotteok
(Korean Pancakes)
Ingredients
Makes: 6-8
300g plain flour
100g glutinous rice flour
12g instant yeast
40g granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
320ml whole milk, warm (just heat it in your microwave for 30-60 seconds)
Plus a lot of shredded cheese (I used mozzarella but use you can use whatever kind you like)
- Extras:
Some more vegetable oil, to cook the pancakes in
Directions
- Making the dough:
- In a large bowl, add the plain flour, glutinous rice flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Whisk these together.
- Now add the oil and milk, mix until a dough forms. This will be a sticky, slightly lumpy dough, this is what we want. Just cover and leave it to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size. This should take around 1-2 hours.
- Once the dough has doubled, give it a mix. Then cover and leave it to rise again, just for 30 minutes this time.
- Filling the hotteok:
- Once your dough has rested for 30 minutes, you can start filling it.
- Divide your dough into 100g pieces, this dough is sticky so have some flour next to you.
- Get one 100g piece of the dough and flatten this out. Add some cheese into the centre, then fold the sides of the dough over the cheese. Now form this into a ball, making sure that the cheese is fully sealed inside.
- Repeat this until you've used all your dough.
- Cooking the hotteok:
- In a pan, add a generous amount of oil and let this heat up.
- Add a few of your dough pieces into the pan, seam side down. Try not to overcrowd the pan, it will make it hard to flip them. Only cook 2-3 at a time.
- Slightly flatten them using a spatula, then once the bottoms of them have turned a golden brown colour, flip them over and slightly flatten them again. They're done once both sides are crispy and golden brown.
- Repeat until you've cooked all of them, then enjoy whiles they're warm!
