377 – Korean Sweet Pancake (Hotteok) / فطيرة الحلوى الكورية

Ingredients :

DOUGH INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups (256 grams) all-purpose white flour
• 2 teaspoons Instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 cup lukewarm water

FILLING INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup (110 grams) dark brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, etc.
• Vegetable oil for frying

Directions :

Step 1 – Making the Dough: 
1- In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients: flour, white sugar, dry yeast, and salt.
2- Add the water and mix well with a spatula until you get a smooth dough that is very sticky
3- Cover the bowl with a humid towel and let the dough rest in a warm place for 1 hour until the dough volume doubles

Step 2 – Making the Stuffing: 
1- In a bowl mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder together.
2- Add around 2 tablespoons of chopped nuts.

Step 3 – Making the Hotteoks: 
1- Preparing a baking pan by covering it with parchment paper and brushing the paper with vegetable oil
2- Check on the dough, it should have doubled or tripled volume. Knead the dought a bit.
3- Brush oil on your hands, thake a bit of the dough and make a ball the size of a mandarine.
4- Flatten the dough ball between your hands and in the center fill it up with a teaspoon or so of the brown sugar filling
5- Close the dough as a pocket and roll it again into a ball. Place the ball with on the baking pan.
6- Continue until you finish all the dough.
7- in a deep pan, heat the vegetable oil.
8- When the oil is hot, place a few hotteoks in the pan and start frying them. Dip a spatula in the oil and use it to flatten the hotteok into a round pancake.
9- When one side becomes golden brown, flip the hotteok and fry the other side until deep golden brown.
10- Place the hotteok on a plate covered with paper towel to absorb any exccess oil. Serve immediately, hot!
Bon appetit!