Hotteok (Korean sweet pancakes) recipe – winter warmers

Although South Korea isn’t nearly as famous for its street food as Thailand or Vietnam, vendors there still offer a great variety of inexpensive and delicious food.

I’ve never seen them selling dalgona – the honeycomb confectionery that’s become wildly popular worldwide thanks to Netflix’s Korean thriller, Squid Game – but I’ve eaten everything from deep-fried silkworm larva (one was enough) and tteokbokki (also spelt ddeokbokki – rice cakes in spicy sauce) to bungeo-ppang (fish-shaped cakes filled with red bean paste).

I’ve also eaten hotteok, which I think may be available only in winter. These little pancakes are usually filled with cinnamon-flavoured sugar and nuts – the sugar becomes molten hot as it cooks.

They make great hand warmers in the frigid cold because the sugar stays hot for a long time, but eventually you’ll give in to temptation and eat them.

The vendor making hotteok will probably warn you to bite into it carefully, so you don’t burn your mouth on the molten sugar.

Probably the hardest part of making hotteok is control­ling the heat under the pan. If the flame is too high, or there are hotspots, the hotteok will scorch before they are cooked through; if it is too low, the dough will be pale, not an appetising brown. If you have an electric skillet, use it to cook the hotteok, because the heat is evenly distributed.

If you are cooking them over a gas flame, watch the hotteok carefully and move them around in the pan as necessary, so none are in a hotspot for too long.

You can use other types of nuts in place of the walnuts. You can also add a teaspoon of sesame seeds to the filling.

I like to use dark muscovado sugar in the filling, because the stronger molasses taste makes the hotteok seem less sweet. You can substitute another type of soft brown sugar.