Making Hotteok - 호떡

My experience with Hotteok has been rather limited, as I had only tried it once and that was several years ago during my first trip to Korea. I often see vendors selling them on the streets, but hadn't tried it since that first time. That is when I learned there are boxed mixes at the store and you can make them yourself! Maybe this is considered cheating, but it is the simpler and easier to produce way to me.

For those of you who do not know what Hotteok is, it is a common street food in Korea made with fluffy yet chewy dough, fried to a golden brown and filled with sweet brown sugar, cinnamon, and various other ingredients like sesame seeds. To a Korean, this 'pancake' is considered a dessert, but I struggle with this definition. Its taste is somewhere on the fine line between a breakfast food and an indulgence for me. 

The reasoning for why I feel this way is simple. For starters, the name itself when translated is referred to as a pancake, and at least where I grew up, the only pancakes that you ate were for breakfast. They also are sweet and made of dough, just like a breakfast pancake would be. My second reason is the fact that cinnamon and sugar is used in the filling. Biting into the sweet dough pancake fills my taste buds with a taste of familiarity. Distantly reminding me of cinnamon-sugar toast, which is something that I ritualistically ate for breakfast any time I visited my grandmothers house throughout my entire childhood.

Then of course, you have to take into account the fact that the dough is fried, not toasted. When considering this additional element the pancake reminds me of a second very American-style food: the elephant ear. The fried taste of the pancake filled with brown sugar is also very similar to this common American fair and festival treat, which is why it also could be an indulgence.

It is like the Hotteok took the best elements of all three of these foods, the pancake, cinnamon toast, and elephant ear, and combined it into a fluffy yet chewy, deliciously sweet filled pancake fried to a golden brown.

Since I am American and because I love sweet things especially for breakfast...I decided that instead of treating Hotteok like a dessert, that I'd start my day off with it. Now I will say this after the fact - it was deliciously satisfying, but I do not recommend eating solely Hotteok for your first meal of the day. It may be sweet like a pancake or cinnamon toast, but it is not a light food. It is heavy and will create a weight in your stomach that will follow you around for most of the remaining day. Granted, one single box is way too much for one single person to eat, and I was greedy...but still, I wouldn't try it. Even if you want to eat it for your breakfast, it should accompany other lighter and wholesome foods. Otherwise an upset stomach is highly possible.

In other words, Hotteok could easily be either a breakfast treat or a late night one in my opinion, and a treat you will always come back to. It joins the reign of sweet, fried doughy goodness that people everywhere love and crave. The ease of being able to make it with a boxed set also makes it something simple that you can make with friends or family (although the process of making the dough can get slightly sticky and messy). Fun, delicious, and satisfying to any sweet tooth, I would totally recommend this food to anyone and everyone.

Below is the video I took while making it!