Sweet Potato Mochi Pancakes with Brown Sugar Nut Filling
These sweet potato mochi pancakes are inspired by the Korean streetfood, hotteok. It's mildly sweet and chewy like mochi and the filling adds a nice nutty, sweet surprise and texture contrast.
Mix together all the ingredients until thoroughly combined. Set aside.*The cashew or other nuts can be chopped roughly or finely to your preference.*
For the sweet potato rice cake:
Cut the sweet potato into ¼ inch slices. Arrange the slices in a heatproof bowl and steam the sweet potato on high heat for about 15 minutes or until you can easily pierce them with a fork.
Transfer the steamed sweet potato to a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and salt and mash the sweet potato until it's a puree.
Add the glutinous rice flour to the mashed sweet potato and mix with a fork or chopsticks until the dough turns shaggy. Let the dough cool until it's comfortable to work with.
Once the dough is cool enough for you to comfortably work with, knead the dough onto itself until it becomes one smooth dough. The dough will be just barely tacky.
Divide the dough into 7 even pieces and roll them into balls. Working with one piece of dough at a time, flatten them with the palm of your hands until they're roughly ¼ inch thick. *Use your fingers if needed to flatten out thicker spots. It may be easier if you keep the center of the dough thicker than the edges.*
Fill the flattened dough with about 1 Tablespoon of filling, then pinch together the edges to seal the dough.
After sealing the dough, roll the filled dough into a ball. Then, gently flatten the ball in a disc about ½ to ¼ inch thick. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
In a nonstick pan over medium to medium low heat, add a small amount of oil. Spread the oil around with a paper towel to evenly distribute.Cook the mochi pancakes on each side for about 3-5 minutes until both sides are golden brown and springs back when poked.Remove the mochi pancakes from the pan and place them on some paper towels to drain excess oil.
Serve the sweet potato mochi pancakes while they're hot. Enjoy!
Notes
If you decide to make a large batch of these sweet potato mochi pancakes and have leftovers, you can store them in airtight containers, refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for 1 month. I recommend that you individually wrap the rice cake for extra convenience.To heat up the mochi pancakes when frozen, simply microwave it on high for 30-40 seconds. To heat up from refrigeration, microwave on high for 15-25 seconds.