Side step right left to this recipe for sweet Korean stuffed pancakes called hotteoks. Fair warning: hotteoks are so ridiculously addicting, they oughta classify as DEA Schedule I. I’ve eaten an aggressive amount of hotteoks the past month that now I plan my weekly caloric intake around them lol. Then BTS dropped the OFFICIAL SUMMER SONG OF 2021 called Butter this past Thursday (or Friday, depending on your part of the world) and I knew I HAD to make them in honor of my seven kings.
*PSA* Please stream or watch the YouTube video for Butter as you’re making this recipe. It elevates the cooking experience to the next galaxy, I promise.
This recipe calls for glutinous rice flour, which can be found in the baking aisle of every Asian grocery store. It gives a chewy texture that makes me want to eat about a hundred of these pancakes at a time. No fear, though: I’ve made this recipe without the glutinous rice flour a bunch of times, and they turn out just as well.
Here are some pictures to help you visualize the instructions below:
Ingredients
For the hotteok dough (makes about five 3.5 inch hotteoks)
3/4 cup bread flour or 1 cup, if you can’t find glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup of glutinous rice flour (found in Asian grocery stores or on Amazon)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp Monkfruit sugar substitute
1 tsp yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
For the hotteok filling
1 tbsp Monkfruit sugar substitute
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tbsp finely chopped walnuts (can sub whatever nuts you have handy)
Hoseok-approved slab of butter (optional)
Widdle bit of honey (optional)
Instructions
- Combine bread flour, glutinous rice flour, Monkfruit sugar substitute, and salt in a large mixing bowl. The glutinous rice flour isn’t necessary, but it does give the hotteok a pleasant chewy texture.
- Microwave milk for about 15-20 seconds to make it lukewarm, then combine with yeast. Let bloom and hopefully your yeast is active!
- Combine wet and dry ingredients to make the dough. Dough should be a bit sticky. Lightly knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes; no need to work on the dough too much. Sticky is normal.
- Let the dough rise to twice its size for about 1-2 hours. Mine took about an hour with the proof setting in my oven.
- Mix Monkfruit sugar substitute, cinnamon, and walnuts in a ramekin.
- Punch dough down and let rest for another 5 to 10 minutes-ish or so. I say ish because I get impatient and sometimes skip straight to step 7 haha!
- Divide dough into five balls. I just eyeball it and use my bare hands. Each ball should be approximately 2 inches.
- Pretend you’re making pizza and stretch out the dough ball into a 4 inch “crust.” I’m doing a hella bad job of describing this process lol, please refer to Figure 1 above to clarify. 😛
- Take about 2.5 tsp of the hotteok filling mixture (or just eyeballit like me 👀) and place it in the middle of your dough. Totally optional, but you can add a slab of butter and/or a dollop of honey on top of the filling to make it EXTRA rich.
- Tuck the perimeter of the dough towards the middle until you have something similar to Figures 2a and 2b above.
- Repeat until all five of your lovely hotteoks are wrapped up and looking similar to Figure 3.
- Heat a frying pan with about a tbsp or so of neutral oil (e.g., canola or vegetable oil) over medium heat. Anything over medium heat will burn your hotteoks!
- Carefully add a hotteok to the pan, and immediately smash it down with your spatula (see Figure 4). Cook until golden brown then flip to the other side, just like you would a typical pancake.
- Transfer each gorgeously golden brown hotteok to a paper-towel lined plate and ENJOY IMMEDIATELYYYY! Highly recommend adding another slab of butter and drizzling some honey on top.
Okay but really. Here are the links (again!) to stream Butter by BTS. Get it, let it roll!
