Hotteok

Hotteok are the sweet filled pancakes that warm Korean winters, sold from street stalls where vendors flip them on hot griddles and hand them over in paper cups. The yeast dough came from Chinese merchants who brought the snack to Korea in the early 1900s, and Koreans made it their own with a molten brown sugar, cinnamon, and nut filling. One bite and you understand why the lines form. They are best the moment they are made, which is exactly how they should be eaten.

Crisp outside, a lava core of sugar and cinnamon

The pancakes are golden and crisp on the outside, chewy within, and hiding a molten pocket of brown sugar that runs the moment you bite in. The nuts add crunch, and the cinnamon makes it smell like winter itself. Eat them hot, straight from the pan, and be careful, because the filling is genuinely lava-hot. They are messy, sweet, and absolutely worth burning your tongue for, and making them at home fills the whole kitchen with that street-stall smell.

Key ingredients

• All-purpose or bread flour and yeast: for the soft, chewy dough.
• Milk, sugar, and salt: the enriched dough base.
• Brown sugar, cinnamon, and crushed peanuts: the molten filling.
• Oil for frying: enough to shallow-fry the pancakes.

Tips for the best hotteok

Give the dough a full rise — 1 to 2 hours until doubled — for a light, chewy pancake. Mix the filling well and keep it coarse so the sugar melts into a syrup but the peanuts stay crunchy. When shaping, seal the filling completely and pinch the edges tight; then fry over medium heat in a little oil, pressing the ball flat with a spatula as it cooks. The filling is lava-hot, so warn everyone (and yourself) before the first bite.

Variations

Add toasted sesame seeds or chopped walnuts to the filling, or drizzle the finished pancakes with a little honey. The dough can be made ahead and kept in the fridge overnight — shape and fry fresh the next morning. Serve warm, straight from the pan, with a cup of tea.

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