I feel like starting a new tradition: Street Food Mondays. Don’t hold me to it. I may totally change my mind. But if I was going to start Street Food Mondays, I feel like this is a fantastic recipe for it.
I give you; the Hotteok.
Hotteok is a Korean street food. As usual I feel like I need to jump in here and tell you that I’m not Korean, and I have only ever spent one night in Korea on a layover. So I have zero ability to tell you whether or not this is a perfectly authentic Hotteok.
But a girl can only see so many mentions of crispy, brown-sugar and peanut filled yeast pancakes before she has to throw caution to the wind and just make some!
They’re so easy to make too! The pancake is made from a very simple dough which comes together in 2 minutes flat, and then once that has rested, they are filled with a mixture of brown sugar, chopped peanuts (or any kind of nut, I think sesame seeds would be awesome) and a little salt.
The dough is wrapped around the filling, and then the pancakes are gently cooked in a hot pan, with just a tiny bit of oil.
The most important step is to let the little Hotteok’s cook on the seal side for a few seconds before flipping them over and flattening them out, as much as you can. This is what produces the signature, wide and flat Hotteok, and it also gives you the best balance of crispy outside, gooey filling, and thin, chewy dough.
And just on it’s own like that, man is it delicious.
I can totally understand why people on the chilly Winter streets of Seoul would gravitate to these little pancake-donut-cinnamon roll hybrids. They are completely comforting and would definitely warm you up from the inside out. Perfect with a hot coffee.
But I am not on the chilly streets of Seoul.
And in Brisbane (where I am) it just never gets that cold, even in Winter. So I really couldn’t help myself from thinking…ICE CREAM SANDWICHES! That chewy-doughy crust, the gooey nutty filling, and the creamy, cold, rapidly melting ice cream together? UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE.
Hotteok ice cream sandwiches. Messy, but delicious. I heartily recommend you give these a go – I think they would be an amazing afternoon snack for kids too (obviously without the ice cream). So, Street Food Mondays, what do you think?
xx Sarah.
- 2 cups (300g) plain flour
- 1 cup (250ml) warm water
- 1 tbsp flavourless oil (I used canola), plus more for cooking
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp yeast
- ½ cup (110g) brown sugar
- ¼ cup chopped nuts of your choice (I used roasted peanuts, next time I'll try sesame seeds)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Vanilla ice cream
- To make the dough, place all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Work on a low speed until everything is combined and the dough gathers up around the dough hook. Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm spot for about an hour or until doubled in size.
- Meanwhile, make the filling by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
- When the dough has risen, punch it down, and scrape it out onto a well-floured surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.
- To shape the hotteok, lightly flour your hands and pick up a piece of dough. Flatten it out gently into about a 4 inch circle, and cradle it in your open hand. Place two teaspoonfuls of the filling (roughly one eighth) into the middle of the dough, and then carefully bring the edges of the dough into the middle pinching them together until the filling is covered and the edges of the dough are completely sealed. Continue until all the hotteok are shaped.
- To cook the hotteok, heat a heavy based frying pan over a medium-low heat until warm. Add a very small amount of oil to the pan (a flavourless oil is best) and swirl to coat. Place two hotteok at a time, seam side down, into the pan and cook until the are very light golden brown. Flip them over and squash them right down, so that they spread out in the pan, and are no more than about ½ inch thick. Cook until dark golden brown on that side, and then flip and cook until the first side is a dark golden brown too.
- When all the hotteok are cooked, you can either eat them as they are (be careful not to burn your mouth!) or you can slice them open and fill them with a fat scoop of vanilla ice cream, and then eat them with about a million napkins as the ice cream melts creamily into your hot pancake. YUM.
Okay, it’s 1:30am and now I am 100% sure I *NEED* to be eating this right this second. I’ve always wanted to make (hell TRY) hotteok, and the first thing I am going to do is smash ice cream inside of it.
YUSSSSSS! Do it, I swear you will have no regrets.
These look delicious! Yumz :)
How do you combine the dough ingredients? Shouldn’t there be milk or something like that?
*FACEPALM* Yup, I missed out the water from the ingredients list! Thanks Francesca! It’s fixed up now. :)
Korean street food?! COOL!!! This looks like the perfect late night treat!
You’ve got that right, my friend!
OMG, I so need these right now. Street Food Mondays – thumbs up from me, yes please.
I think I’m definitely going to try and keep it going! Thanks for the feedback Bibs!
These little ice cream sandwiches look amazing and I’ll all for Street food Mondays! :)
Thanks Bri! I’m definitely going to try and keep it up!
Ohhh man I’m SO into this!! That ice cream, in that crispy little pocket of delicious?! YES!
Oh my goodness I LOVE that you made hotteok!!! AHH. It’s been on my to-do list forever — these look absolutely AMAZING. And having it with ice cream is so genius. 200% YES for Street Food Mondays!
Street Food Mondays is happening! Thanks Cynthia!
YOU. ARE. A FREAKING. GENIUS. These are unbelievable!!!!!!!!
Street food mondays sound awesome! I need these sandwiches in my life–so creative Sarah!
Thanks Lovely!
Girl, these are beyond awesome! And the ice cream + filling takes them over the top! I loved grabbing hoteeoks from the vendors in Korea and can’t wait to try this lovely riff on them. Also, Street Food Mondays definitely needs to become a thing!
I look forward to getting one in Korea myself one day! Street Food Mondays IS ON!
I love the sound of street food mondays. And this treat, which I’d never heard of before. Thanks!
lol I ADORE the idea of street food Mondays!! I’ve never had hotteok but it sounds to die for and in ice cream sandwich form? DEAD. OVER. EARLY GRAVE. TOO MUCH YUm!
What a creative and different way to make ice cream sandwiches!
I’m a Korean-American, born and bred in NYC and currently residing in Seoul, and i can say with absolute authority that these are exactly like the ones sold in seoul! It’s great to see some korean street-food get an aussie makeover..looks scrumptious!
I AM VERY MUCH INTO ALL OF THIS.
Good…
I~m a korean , born and bred in busan.
do you know “busan seed hotteok”?
No I’ve never heard of it! I’d love to know more.
sarah! WOH! i love this!!!! i want to make this!!! love the idea of street food mondays! you have such fun ideas! ^__^
You’re right — I don’t think there is any other way to describe these other than UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE. oh my gosh, they look amazing. You’re awesome.
Pinning!
I don’t believe it…I can completely eat these! If I pair them with vegan ice cream this is a sandwich that this little black duck can completely indulge in and even though it might not be all that cold up there in sunny Brisbane, down here in frigid Tasmania I feel like we are in frozen Seoul so this recipe would go down rather nicely about now…
YAAAAAAY for vegan treats! I would love to visit Tassie one of these days – I love the cold!
This is so genius!! I’ve grown up eating hotteuk my whole life , but I have NEVER thought of putting icecream in it! WHAT!!! That takes balls :D