Makes: 8-10 hotteok
Preparing time: 20-30 min
Waiting time: 1 hour and 10 min
Vegan

This warming street food snack is most common in winter on the streets of South-Korea. A delicious chewy, doughy snack, bursting with it’s sweet - or savory! - filling with a bite of some nuts and seeds. This version has some gochujang to spice up the sugary filling a little bit, tickling your mouth with it’s subtle heat. Oh Na Mi Gochujang is perfect for sweets like this, because of the slight spice and apple syrup that’s in it. You can put any nuts or seeds in that you enjoy, but chopped peanuts are most common.

Ingredients

The dough

• 1/2 sachet of instant yeast - 4g
• 1 tbs white sugar
• 100g warm water - not hot!
• 250g white flour (or 375 if you’re not using rice flour)
• 125g sweet rice flour*
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml lukewarm milk or a plant based alternative
• Neutral oil (vegetable/sunflower)

The filling

• 20g sunflower seeds
• 20g chopped salted peanuts
• 1,5 / 25g heaping tsp Oh Na Mi Gochujang
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 75g cup of dark brown sugar

Let's Oh Na Mi this!

Preparing the dough

1. Start by mixing the yeast with the sugar and the water and let it sit for 10 min - or until it gets foamy. If it doesn’t get foamy the yeast is not working, try a different sachet.
2. Mix together the two types of flour and the salt in a big, separate bowl.
3. When the mixture is foamy mix in 1 tbs of oil and the lukewarm milk- if the mixture is not foamy, the yeast is inactive. Try with a different sachet.
4. Add the wet yeast mixture in to the dry mixture and mix it with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth. Try stretching up the dough and folding it over itself in the bowl with the spoon.
5. Cover the bowl with a lid and put the dough in a warm place to let it rise for 1,5-2h or until the dough has doubled in size - if your house is cold you can also put it in the oven with only the light on. The size is more important than the time!
6. In the mean time you can already prepare the filling by mixing the sugar, Oh Na Mi Gochujang, cinnamon and nuts and seeds in to a paste.

Frying the hotteok

1. When the dough is risen, punch down once and form it in to a ball
2. Oil a surface (like a baking sheet or the kitchen table) and divide the dough in 8-10 balls.
3. Put a little oil on your hands and flatten the dough. Put 1 big teaspoon of filling in the middle and close it by pulling the sides over to the middle, pinching the dough to close the hole
4. Heat up a pan on low-medium with a generous amount of oil, in order to shallow fry them.
5. Once the oil is hot, place the hotteok in the pan (it will sizzle).
6. Fry for about 1-2 minutes, or until the bottom turns golden, flip it and press the hotteok flat with the back of a spatula**
7. Fry is for another 1-2 minutes until golden brown on both sides.
8. Fry all the hotteok and add more oil when needed.
9. Place them on a cooling rack or a plate with a piece of paper to get rid of the access oil
10. Best served hot, or in a paper cup with two cuts on the side (for the real street food experience!

*NOTE: the rice flour makes the hotteok more soft and chewy which is closer to the ones at the street stalls, but if you can’t find it you can also just use normal flour - it will be a bit more like a bread.

**NOTE: you can use any flat object to press down the hotteok. A spatula, the bottom of a saucepan or a bowl. Make sure it has no edges!

Variations for fillings

Of course this is the most popular filling for a reason. It’s warming, sweet and Oh Na Mi so delicious! But there are so many more option, both sweet and savory:

Korean fillings with an Oh Na Mi twist:

• Red bean (Pat) with Oh Na Mi Gochujang
• Oh Na Mi Original Kimchi and cheese
• Corn, cheese and Oh Na Mi Kimchi Mayo

Dutch fusion hotteok:

• Stroopwafel hotteok: dark brown sugar, Oh Na Mi Gochujang, speculaas spice and butter
• Dutch sandwhich: peanut butter, honey and Oh Na Mi Korean Seaweed Sesame Soy Sauce

Troubleshooting and tips

• Why did my dough tear? - Pressed to early, make sure the bottom is golden brown before pressing.
• Why is my syrup leaking out - Pressed too late, the sugar has already fully melted and can leak out.
• Why does my dough tastes heavy and dense? - The dough hasn’t risen enough, be sure to let it rise twice in volume instead of focussing on the time!
• How do I store them? - While they’re best eaten hot, they heat up really well and can even be kept in the freezer.
• Why are they so oily? - If the oil is not hot enough, the dough soaks it up instead of getting crispy. Test the oil by putting in a little piece of dough. Is it sizzling? You can put in the hotteok!