What is Hotteok? How to Make Korean Sweet Pancakes

Korean street food is a whole delicious world of its own, with tteokbokki, gimbap, and the popular Korean corn dogs gaining interest all over the world in recent years.

Here, we turn our attention to a sweet street food treat – hotteok. You won’t be able to get enough of these winter favourites!

What is Hotteok?

Hotteok is a sweet, filled pancake often enjoyed as a street food during winter.

The traditional pancake filling is a mix of peanuts, cinnamon and brown sugar, although you can find other flavours such as red bean or green tea, as well as the inclusion of different nuts or seeds. When cooked, this filling turns into a sumptuous syrupy mixture.

You can also get savoury fillings but hotteok pancakes are typically known as a sweet snack.

They are generally pan-fried although some street food vendors may also deep fry the hotteok for a crispier exterior texture.

The History of Hotteok

Hotteok’s origins lie in China. It is thought that in the 19th century, Chinese merchants settling in Korea brought over sweet pancakes called tang bing. The recipe was altered over the years, finally resulting in the modern hotteok that’s enjoyed today.

How to Pronounce Hotteok

The literal English translation of hotteok is ‘barbarian’s rice cake’ and in Korean, it is pronounced somewhat like ‘ho-tok’.

How to Make Hotteok

Unlike American pancakes or crepes, hotteok is made from a dough that contains yeast. If you’re making them from scratch, you must leave the dough to rise before dividing it into individual pancakes, adding your filling and flattening as you cook. This dough gives the pancakes a soft but wholesome and chewy texture.

Follow our simple recipe to see how good this treat is for yourself! The recipe is for around six medium pancakes.