HODDEOK: SWEET KOREAN PANCAKES

Dessert | May 25, 2018 | By Hyeon Jeong

Hoddeok, Sweet Korean Pancakes with brown sugar, mixed nuts and cinnamon. OMG! They’re as good as they sound! One of the most popular street foods in Korea never fails to impress. And they’re vegan too!

Koreans love street food. Throw a stone in Korea and you will hit ten street food stalls. Just kidding. More like seven or eight. One of the best things about shopping in Korea is that after a hard day trying on shoes, you are never far away from some delicious treats to keep you going. Here’s just a few:

Spicy Rice Cakes/ Ddeokbokki (떡볶이)

Fish Cakes/ Odeng/Uhmook (오뎅/어묵)

Fried Rice Cake Skewers/ Ddeokggochi (떡꼬치)

Ice Cream-filled Waffles (와플)

Cotton Candy/ Somsatang (솜사탕)

Sugar Lollipop/ Bbopkki (뽑기)

Tornado Potato/ Hweori Gamja (회오리 감자)

Goldfish Bread/ Boong-uh-ppang (붕어빵)

French Fry-covered Hot Dogs/ Gamja Hot Dog (감자핫도그)

Egg Bread/ Gyeran-Bbang (계란빵)

Fried Squid / Ojingeo Twigim (오징어 튀김)

I could go on and on and on. Pretty much if it fits on a stick there will be a street food stall selling it. 🙂 I LOVE Korea.

Hoddeok is definitely one of the most popular street food snacks. Stop at any motorway services, train station, street corner and someone will be selling this lovely sticky sweet pancake. They are fabulous hot off the griddle with a sprinkling of icing sugar. The brown sugar caramel oozing out of the middle. Yum!

Over the last few years, different variations of Hoddeok have started to appear. I’ve seen (and tried) Cheese Hoddeok, Japchae Hoddeok, Kimchi Hoddeok, Green Tea Hoddeok, Sweetcorn Hoddeok, Pizza Hoddeok, Chocolate Hoddeok… Basically if you can stuff it inside the dough then someone, somewhere is selling it. Maybe I’m old school but none of them are as good as the classic filling of brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon. Pizza Hoddeok comes pretty close though!

DIY Kimchi Kit

Products from Amazon.co.uk

These pancakes are definitely best served straight away. They don’t tend to keep very well as they go a bit hard and chewy. It’s such a tough job having to eat the whole batch in one go! Next time you fancy something a little different you should definitely give these beauties a try. Enjoy!

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HODDEOK: SWEET KOREAN PANCAKES

Author: Hyeon Jeong

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Korean

Prep time: 55 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 6

Hoddeok, Sweet Korean Pancakes with brown sugar, mixed nuts and cinnamon. OMG! They’re as good as they sound!

What You'll Need

600g Strong Flour
50g Potato Starch
4g Yeast
500ml Warm Water
10g Sugar
7g Salt
Filling
½ Cup Brown Sugar
½ Cup Mixed Nuts (Peanuts, Walnuts, Cashew Nuts)
1 tsp Salt
1.5 tsp Cinnamon Powder
To Serve
Icing Sugar
Chocolate Sauce
Vegetable Oil for frying

How to Make It

Put the flour, potato starch, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
Add the warm water a little at a time, mixing it in with a spoon each time.
When you have added all of the water, get your hands in and knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes. It will be quite wet and sticky. Don’t add any more flour.
Take the dough out of the bowl and knead on a clean surface for another 6-7 minutes. When done, put the dough back in the large bowl and cover with cling wrap. Leave to prove for 50 minutes.
Whilst the dough is proving, make the filling. Add the brown sugar, mixed nuts, cinnamon powder and salt to a bowl. Stir until well mixed.
After 50 minutes, wet your hands with a little vegetable oil (this stops the dough from sticking to your hands). Take a handful of dough and flatten it out into a rough circle in the palm of your hand. Place two generous dessert spoons of the filling in the centre of the dough and fold all the edges into the middle so that the filling is sealed inside. Repeat until you have used up all the dough and filling mixture.
Fry each ball of dough in a little vegetable oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Use a spatula and or a potato masher to gently flatten the ball into a pancake roughly 1cm thick.
Flip occasionally until well browned on both sides.
Take them from the pan, sprinkle with icing sugar and drizzle with chocolate sauce. Serve immediately. Enjoy!