Hotteok, or Korean sweet pancake, is filled with gooey cinnamon sugar and nuts, accompanied with a light crisp and a pleasant chewiness. It's one of Korea's most popular street snacks and desserts.
In a medium mixing bowl, combined all of the ingredients and mix until no more dry flour is visible. Cover and let it proof in a warm area until doubled, about 40 minutes to 1 hour.*This dough will be very wet, so feel free to use a spatula if you prefer.*
While waiting for the dough to double, combined all of the ingredients for the filling in a wide bowl and give it a mix. Set aside until needed.*It's up to you what nuts you prefer, we normally use walnuts but sometimes we like to use assorted nuts. Also, I highly recommend a wider bowl because it'll be less messy when filling the dough.*
Once the dough has doubled, knead it back to it's original size and let it rest for 10-20 minutes.
In a medium pan, add enough vegetable oil to generously cover the entire bottom of the pan. Heat on medium low heat.
With gloved hands, grease the gloves with some vegetable oil. Pinch off ⅙ of the dough (roughly a 1½ to 2 inch ball). Flatten the dough in your palm to about ¼ inch thick. Pack about 1½ to 2 tablespoon of filling into the center of the dough, then pinch together the edges to seal the dough.*Refer to the post for picture reference of the dough filling process! Also, highly highly recommend wearing gloves and greasing those gloves. They will tremendously help with the wet dough.*
Place the dough, seam side down into the oil and flatten immediately with a well greased hotteok press or spatula. Let the hottoek fry until golden brown on one side, then flip to let the other side fry until golden as well, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the hotteok from the oil and let it cool for a few minutes. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.*If the hotteok browns too quickly, lower the heat slightly.*
Enjoy the hotteok while hot, but be careful of the extremely hot brown sugar syrup on the inside!
Notes
*This hotteok recipe uses a very wet dough to create an airier and chewier texture. If you're not comfortable with handling a dough of this high hydration, check out the post for an alternative dough recipe!*