Saturday, November 9, 2013

Hot cakes! Aka Hotteok

In Korea, spicy is everywhere from kimche to ddeokbokki, so finding a traditional sweet pancake, or hotteok is a real treat for my sweet tooth. 
Prounced hoeduck, hotteok is a sweet, sticky Korean pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, or diced peanuts/nuts. It is a popular street vendor food, {only about 1,000 KRW} and winter snack in Korea. We found them in Seoul on the streets of Hongdae
Traditionally the pancakes are fried in oil on a skillet, as seen above. Most are made with enough oil that they are somewhat deep fried. Oiiiii. Some are thick and doughy, and others less puffy and thin. The most truly unique texture of the hotteok is the crisp outside, and the chewy bread inside. Delicious
The tricky bit of this pancake recipe is the mixture of wheat flour, and the perfect mix of glutinous {sweet} rice flour, a staple in Korea. The magic is in finding the balance. The rest of the recipe is simple: equal parts milk, yeast, sugar, and salt. 
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To make: Small pieces of dough are flattened into disks, with a spoonful of filling folded in. Once on the griddle, the cook flattens the mixture with a spatula, and the cakes are left to sizzle. The cakes are served straight from the griddle in little paper cups. ^^Notice the hot dogs as well: another vey popular Korean street food. 



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