Hotteok is a popular Korean street snack. You can make hotteok at home with a few basic ingredients. It’s delicious with lots of healthy seeds and nuts!
Who wouldn’t love biting into a golden fried dough filled with a gooey brown sugar syrup and nuts from a street cart or stall on a cold winter day? Eaten hot off the griddle, hotteok (호떡, hodduk or hoddeok) is extremely popular during the winter months.
What is hotteok?
Hotteok basically is a pan-fried yeast dough stuffed with a brown sugar and nut filling.
There are many variations, but the classic hotteok we grew up on is made with a simple yeast dough with a brown sugar and nut filling and pan-fried in a little bit of oil. This recipe is my modern take on the classic version.
The types of hotteok continue to evolve — thanks to street food vendors! It seems like every time I go to Korea I learn about a new variation or two. There are all sorts of different sweet and savory fillings such as red beans, cheese, vegetables, japchae, etc.
The dough has become very complex, as vendors strive to achieve the best flavor and texture. Many vendors now deep-fry their hotteok. Of course, deep-frying makes everything more delicious, but I prefer pan-frying.
When my daughter and I visited Busan (a southern coastal city) a couple of years ago, we were told that we had to try ssiat hotteok (씨앗호떡). Ssiat means seeds in Korean. The round dough with a simple brown sugar filling was first deep-fried. Then, the lady cut one edge open and stuffed a couple of spoonfuls of the seed and nut sugar mix before folding it to serve in a small paper cup. Delectable! This variation of hotteok created in Busan has become very popular all over the country.
Hotteok filling
Ingredients
- light brown sugar (or a combination of regular sugar and dark brown sugar)
- cinnamon powder
- assorted roasted seeds and nuts (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, etc.)
Having had ssiat hotteok in Korea, I tweaked my classic hotteok recipe to add lots of seeds and nuts to the filling. So, there’s actually a healthy element to this sweet treat! The seeds and nuts give lots of nutty flavors and textures to the brown sugar filling. You can use any seeds and/or nuts you like and adjust the amount to your liking.
Hotteok dough
Ingredients
- active dry yeast or instant yeast
- all-purpose flour (or bread flour)
- sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour/powder)
- milk (or almond milk) or water
- salt
- sugar
- cooking oil
The dough is made with wheat flour, sweet rice (glutinous rice) flour/powder, sugar, and yeast. The ratio of flour and sweet rice flour can be varied, depending on preference. While you can make the dough with only all-purpose or bread flour, the sweet rice powder makes hotteok soft and chewy. You can simply use water to make the dough, but milk adds to the flavor. I sometimes use almond milk, which is a good milk substitute for vegan hotteok.
More Korean Street Food Recipes
Hobak Hotteok (Sweet Stuffed Pumpkin Pancakes)
Gilgeri Toast (Korean Street Toast)
Tteokbokki
Kimbap
Mini kimbap
Dalgona candy
For more Korean cooking inspirations, follow along on YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Ingredients
Yeast for the dough:
- 1 package active dry yeast (2-1/4 teaspoons) or instant yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water (no need for water if using instant yeast)
- 1 teaspoon sugar (no need for sugar if using instant yeast)
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (or bread flour)
- 1/2 cup sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour/powder), chapssal garu (찹쌀가루)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1-1/4 cups milk (or almond milk) or water Start with 1 cup and gradually add more) - See note
Filling:
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (or a combination of regular sugar and dark brown sugar, 1/4 cup each)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 5 tablespoons assorted roasted seeds and nuts (use more or less to taste) (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, etc.)
- cooking oil for pan-frying
Instructions
- Skip this step if using instant yeast. Warm a bowl or cup by rinsing it with warm water. Add 1/4 cup of warm water to the bowl (100 to 110°F ). Stir in the sugar and yeast. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes until the yeast has foamed and grown.
- Sift the flour, sweet rice powder, sugar and salt together. Add the yeast water (or instant yeast), oil, and warm milk (or water) to the flour mix.
- Knead until everything is well incorporated and a smooth dough is formed. The dough should be sticky and stretchy when pulled. Kneading it longer makes hotteok chewier. Using your hand or the stand mix dough hook is much easier for this step.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place and let it rise until it doubles in size, about an hour or longer.
- Prepare the filling by chopping the nuts and mixing all the filling ingredients well.
- Bring the dough down by reshaping it into a round. Let it sit for another 20 to 30 minutes until it doubles in size again or longer. You can let the dough sit for hours at this point until ready to use.
- Heat a pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Lightly oil your hands. Tear a big enough piece of the dough to make an about 2.5-inch ball. Flatten the ball into a thick disk, creating a shallow well in the middle. Add about 1.5 tablespoons of the filling and lightly press it down with the spoon.
- Carefully gather the edges together, pinching to seal.
- Put the sealed side down on the pan, flattening a little by pressing it down with your oiled hand or spatula. Cook for a minute, and then flip over. Press down for a few seconds to flatten. Cook until both sides are golden brown. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
- Hotteok freezes well. You can reheat it in a toaster or air fryer and enjoy delicious hotteok any time.
Anonymous says
So So delicious. Followed as directed to the point.
Hyosun says
Oh so happy to hear that! I’ve been thinking about making hotteok lately and now I’m inspired. Thank you!
Smile says
Can I use einkorn flour instead of AP flour? If so what ratio, does the amount of liquid change? Thank you
Hyosun says
Sorry I’ve never used einkorn flour, so I’m not sure about the ratio. Try it with the way you normally replace AP with einkorn flour.
Nivedita says
I am so glad I found your website! My family is vegetarian and your Dubu Jorim recipe is now firmly in my 2 week rotation.
I made these last night and even my nuts and seeds hating child ate two! Next time I plan to try these with sweet rice flour which I omitted this time. Thank you for your clear recipes and beautiful photos!
Hyosun says
oh awesome!! Yes sweet rice will give you a firmer, chewier texture. Thank you for trying it out and letting me know how it turned out.
Nivedita says
Hi Hyosun,
I made this for the 3rd or 4th time today, using glutinous rice flour, as I had once before. At that time I didn’t notice any added chewiness compared to using only All Purpose Flour. Today, I weighed the AP flour instead of measuring the volume. Then, used 1/4C (for proving active dry yeast) + just shy of 1C water for mixing the dough. Glad I held back the last tablespoon or so, because my dough looked wetter than before! I added a tablespoon of flour to adjust the dough slightly. When I went to shape after a couple of hours – oh boy – the wetter dough definitely needed well oiled hands and work surface. But, I actually found it easier to stuff, because it was simple to patch up any holes and in general redistribute dough to avoid thin coverage. Most importantly, I think I finally got the desired soft but chewy texture in the finished hotteok! So delicious!
I also tried a chocolate chips + almond butter filling in some. Yummy!
Nancy Peterson says
Hi! Looking forward to making these for my Christmas Eve dinner! Can I make the dough a couple days ahead of time? If so, hope do you suggest I care for the dough? Thank you!
Hyosun says
I never tried it that far advance, but I don’t see why not. Just be sure to tightly close it before placing it in the fridge.
Joshua says
I’ve always wanted to try this with peanut butter and honey. Think I’m going to try your recipe and see how it goes with peanut butter. I know Koreans don’t really care much for peanut butter, but maybe I can win them over!
Ilona says
Can these be made gluten Free?
Hyosun says
Yes! Simply use gluten free flour.
Corina says
I absolutely loved these!
Abbigail says
Hi Hyosun,
I am dying to try this recipe!!! I have two questions, if i can not find Sweet Rice Flour what can I use as a substitution?
I do not have the round spatula, would a normal be okay to use?
Hyosun says
You can simply omit it. Yes, you can use a normal spatula. Enjoy!
Aden says
Hello. How many gram per package of instant yeast?
Hyosun says
Mine is 7 grams.
Joyce Ann Rosauro says
This is now my go-to Hotteok recipe. So yummy!
Gayathri Prabhu says
Thank you Hyosun for the awesome and easy recipe. The hotteok turned out yummy, my daughter loved it. I skipped the sweet rice flour. Can we use plain rice flour instead of sweet rice flour?
Hyosun says
Hello Gayathri! Great it turned out well for you! Definitely you can. The texture will be slightly different. The sweet rice gives a bit of elastic/sticky chewiness, and the plain rice flour will give more of crispiness. Let me know how it turns out if you try.
Jane Metzger says
Could this be the same that I had in Seoul years ago. What I had was cooked in a little mold pan and they were little round balls. Yes, it was street food for the winter time and they were delicious.
Heather says
Thanks for the recipe! These were great! My sister and I made them for New Year’s Eve (we’ve never actually had hotteok, but they came out looking like the photos), and we couldn’t be happier! We had to use all purpose flour for them (I didn’t have any rice flour), but they were really good. I can’t wait to make them again with rice flour!
Ron Morissette says
I’m gonna make it tomorrow for breakfast so I’ll let you know when we’ve tried them
Bernadette says
I made this last week and it was great! It’s my first time making it. Everyone said it was better than the restaurant made.
Sunny says
Hi! I made these! They were so good!
If I freeze the leftover hotteok, do I need to let it thaw first before reheating? Or I reheat them directly out of the freezer. Thank you!
Hyosun says
Great! Glad they came out well for you. I’d leave them out on the counter for 30 min or so before reheating, but not absolutely necessary depending on how you’re reheating.
Nyeon Ju woo says
I’ve your recipe all of them(awesome)
Than’s again
Hodduk4eva says
Try mozzarella cheese and honey as a filling. Heaven sent. They do this in Korea now too.
Hyosun says
Sounds great! I should try it too.
Mario says
Hi!
Can flour be replaced (gluten allergy)?
Elisa says
We are GF as well. Have you found a good GF flour?
Anne says
My daughter made these and they were out of this world!!
She made some with the traditional filling from the recipe above but also made some with chocolate (we are in Switzerleand… that was a must!) and with sweet red bean paste.
They all turned out absolutely scrumptious….Thank you
Jun says
They came out perfect. I had a flash of my childhood with that sugary goodness.
Sofi says
I’d never tried hotteok before, and I wanted to see what they were like, so I tried this recipe out. I realized after I get back from the store that I had rice flour, not sweet rice powder, but I decided to add it anyway. The texture was nice and springy! The dough was really loose when I started filling it, so oiled hands were definitely necessary, but it still shaped just fine. They turned out golden and crispy and gooey and sweet! Delicious!
Hyosun says
Awesome! It sounds like you had just right consistency of the dough. So happy to hear it turned out delicious for you.
Alex K says
From what I read, “sweet rice flour” is called glutenous rice flour in America. I had to order on Amazon. I am about to make a batch. Wish me luck! 🙂
Hyosun says
Yay good luck! Yes it is, and those names are used interchangeably.
Emma says
Very good! This was such an amazing recipe. I really enjoyed it.
Hyosun says
Awesome! So happy to hear that.
Ashley says
Do you have one with a honey filling? They were my absolute favorite when I was in Korea
Hyosun says
You can swap some sugar with honey. It probably wasn’t 100 percent honey.
Kara says
Hi Hyosun. What adjustments should I make to the dough if I want to use a savory filling? Thank you!
Hyosun says
Hi Kara!
Nothing! there’s not much sugar in the dough to make it sweet for the savory filling.
Kara says
Thank you Hyosun! I plan to stuff it with Japchae. By the way, I (fairly) recently made your Bulgogi recipe. Words cannot describe how delicious it is. Thank you for the hard work and love you put into all of your recipes!
Kara says
Hi Hyosun. What adjustments should I make to the dough if I want to use a savory filling? Thank you!
Liliane says
Loved the addition of rice flour! It makes the hotteok slightly chewy. I usually never put seeds in my filling, but this will change because I fell in love! Thank you for the recipe.
Hyosun says
Hi Liliane! Great! Happy to hear you fell in love with this hotteok. We love it too!
zero says
Yes! We love heottok. We used to have shop nearby that made them, but they are now sadly closed. Thank you for this recipe!
Emily says
Does deep frying vs pan frying change the texture? What is the difference in texture and flavor between the two options? Thanks! Looks so yummy!!!
Chloe says
Hi Hyosun. How much instant yeast should I use? I bought 500gm instant yeast in a packet. No idea of how much to use.
For dough, can I use the mixer using the dough hooks?