My love for anything Korean related started off when I watched my first K-pop music video about two years ago. Then, my friend showed me these two Canadian bloggers living in Korea (Eat Your Kimchi) I was introduced to even more of the culture.

Every other week they have a video in which they go around and eat a bunch of delicious looking food in Korea. One of the more recent ones was on Hoddeok, a Korean street food.

Hoddeok is usually only available in the winter and is pretty much dough that is filled with a brown sugar and cinnamon mixture and then cooked on a skillet. The result is a crunchy outer crust with the inside dough still being chewy. The best part though is the filling. The brown sugar mixture melts and creates a warm gooey filling inside of the Hoddeok.

One thing to watch out for when making the dough is that it is very sticky. You really need to put lots of oil on your hand, or if you have plastic gloves at home use those. Even with the oil the dough will stick together so it is difficult to get perfect round ball. Just make sure that there are no huge holes in the dough, you want the brown sugar to be completely covered so it doesn’t seep out of the dough when you put it in the pan. Another quick option is to skip making the dough all together and use packaged biscuit dough. Follow the same steps for the filling as well as  cooking he hoddeok.

The recipe here makes enough for around five to six Hoddeok but it can always be doubled or halved if needed.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup rice flour

1 envelope (about 11 g) instant yeast

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup lukewarm milk

1 tsp cooking oil (plus more for frying the hoddeok)

Step 1: In a large bowl, add the two flours, yeast, salt, and sugar.

Step 2: Put the milk in a microwave proof bowl. Put in the microwave for around 15-20 seconds. The milk needs to be lukewarm.

Step 3: Add the oil to the milk, and then add the milk mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Step 4: Mix together with a wooden spoon until it forms together. The dough will be extremely sticky but that is what you want.

Step 5: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in a warm place for about 45 minutes, or until it has doubled in size. (I stuck mine in the microwave).

Step 6: After the 45 minutes take it out and punch the dough in the middle to release the air. Cover it and put it back in the microwave for 10 minutes.

Step 7: Meanwhile, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Take out the dough and cover you hands in oil or wear plastic gloves.

Step 8: Take a chunk of the dough and flatten it on your palm, it should be somewhere around 2 inches in diameter. Add about a spoonful if the brown sugar mixture on the dough and fold the dough over. (This is the hardest part but just be patient with it, and if you need to, take it a bit more of the dough to cover up holes.)

Step 9: Heat up some oil in the pan, you can either pour in some vegetable oil or just spray it with Pam. Put two Hoddeok in at a time. When the underside looks brown and crispy, flip it with a spatula.

Step 10: Get the bottom of a bowl or a glass and spray that with oil. Use that to press down on the Hoddeok to flatten it. Once the other side is cooked, take the Hoddeok out of the pan and transfer them to a plate with a paper towel on it. (This will soak up some of the extra oil.)

Step 11: Finish cooking the rest of your Hoddeok and eat immediately, they aren’t as good when they are room temperature.