After Squid Game’s dalgona, how to make hotteok, Korean sweet pancakes and a street snack that warms your hands but can burn your mouth
- The pancakes are made with dark muscovado sugar, which adds a molasses flavour to the cinnamon and walnuts
- The filling turns to molten sugar when the hotteok is hot, so be very careful when you bite into it
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 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.
Hotteok
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.
