Korean honey pancakes – Hotteok

Lil’ bun recently came across a recipe for Korean honey pancakes and suggested that we make some since we haven’t had them in a while. Mother deer used to buy these from the Korean market and cook them on the skillet but upon realizing that they had corn syrup in them, she stopped buying them.

That’s when we decided to try to make our own years ago but we used glutinous rice flour in the dough instead of using a straight all-purpose flour dough like we did for this one.

​​​​​Another difference is that this time we made a honey syrup filling to go in each of the Korean honey pancakes instead of simply sprinking brown sugar. This made the filling more gooey and delicious to eat! We decided to add chopped walnuts to our filling but you can leave them out or you can use other chopped nuts/seeds.

Ingredients

• 400g Flour
• 6g Active dry yeast
• 2g Salt
• 45g Sugar
• 240g Milk
• 1 Egg
• 60g Butter
• 75g Brown sugar
• 60g Honey
• 100g Water
• 20g Corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix sift the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt together. Stir in the milk and the egg. Knead it until a soft dough comes together. It will start off very wet but as you knead it, it will come together and get less sticky

2. Chop up the pieces of butter and wrap the dough around it. Massage the butter into the dough. It will be difficult at first but after 5 minutes it will incorporate and become a soft dough ball.

3. Place the dough into a glass bowl to rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place for an hour until it doubles in size.

4. When the dough is done rising, divide it into 12 equal pieces. Then cover and let it rise for 15 – 20 minutes. When the dough is done rising, divide it into 12 equal pieces. Then cover and let it rise for 15 – 20 minutes.

5. While the dough is rising, make the filling. Add the brown sugar, honey, water, corn starch, salt and ground cinnamon into a sauce pan on low-heat. Stir the ingredients together until it forms a paste the consistency of honey. Transfer it into a bowl and fold in the chopped walnuts. While the dough is rising, make the filling. Add the brown sugar, honey, water, corn starch, salt and ground cinnamon into a sauce pan on low-heat. Stir the ingredients together until it forms a paste the consistency of honey. Transfer it into a bowl and fold in the chopped walnuts.

​​​​​​​6. Take a piece of the dough and flatten it. Then place a tablespoon of filling into it before pinching the edges together to seal it. Continue with the rest of the buns.

7. Place the bun onto a non-stick pan on low heat. Gently press the bun down so that it forms a flat circle similar to a pancake. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

​​​​​​​8. Let cool and enjoy.