Hotteok recipe: Korean pancakes with a sugar filling

Oct 7, 2026

By Jihye Dschihä

Hotteok (호떡) are Korean pancakes made from yeast dough and filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. In the pan, the sugar melts into a sweet syrup and the dough turns golden brown on the outside. In Korea, hotteok are a popular street food, especially in winter. This recipe makes eight and follows Korean Bapsang.

What ingredients do I need for hotteok?

For the dough

2 cups (about 480 ml) all-purpose flour
½ cup (about 120 ml) glutinous rice flour, which makes the dough soft and chewy
1 packet active dry yeast (2¼ tsp)
¼ cup (about 60 ml) warm water and 1 tsp sugar for the yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
1 to 1¼ cups (about 240 to 300 ml) milk or water

For the filling

½ cup (about 120 ml) light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
5 tbsp roasted seeds and nuts, such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanuts or walnuts, finely chopped

For frying: a few tablespoons of oil.

You can find glutinous rice flour at an Asian grocery store. According to Korean Bapsang, a dough made only with wheat flour works too, but it is less chewy. Other recipes use considerably more glutinous rice flour, up to half of the total flour.

How do I make hotteok?

Stir the yeast into the warm water with 1 tsp sugar and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
Mix the wheat flour, glutinous rice flour, sugar and salt. Add the yeast, oil and gradually the milk until you have a soft, sticky dough.
Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, about an hour or longer. Then punch it down and let it rise again for 20 to 30 minutes.
Mix the filling ingredients.
Oil your hands, take a piece of dough, flatten it and put about 1.5 tbsp of filling in the center. Pull the dough over it and pinch the edges together firmly.
Heat a few tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Place the ball seam side down in the pan and flatten it with an oiled spatula.
After about a minute, flip it and fry until both sides are golden brown.

Do not press too hard, or the dough will tear and the filling will leak out. According to Kimchimari, the heat should not be too high so the sugar inside has time to melt. Chopped nuts help keep the melted sugar inside the dough. In Korea there are special hotteok presses for flattening them, but a spatula works too.

What should I watch out for when eating?

The filling gets very hot, and it is easy to burn your mouth. Kimchimari advises letting hotteok cool for a few minutes before eating. Hotteok used to be sold in folded paper, from which hot sugar syrup could leak out. That is why street stalls today often serve it in a small paper cup.

According to Korean Bapsang, leftover hotteok freeze well and can be reheated in a toaster or air fryer.

Where does hotteok come from?

Hotteok came to Korea with Chinese immigrants. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, immigration on a larger scale began after an 1882 trade agreement between Korea and China's Qing dynasty. The first documented hotteok bakery opened in Seoul in 1889. By 1923 there were already 203 such shops across the country, and by October 1930 there were 1,139.

The name reveals its origin: 호 (Ho, 胡) was a derogatory term in China for foreigners from the west, such as Central Asia. The Korean saying 호떡집에 불났다, literally "the hotteok shop is on fire," meaning a noisy commotion, also dates from this time.

Back then, hotteok were baked in a charcoal oven. According to the Korean Culture and Information Service, the pan-fried version common today only appeared around 1970, when cooking oil became widely available. The Chinese hotteok shops gradually disappeared during the 1970s.

What kinds of hotteok are there?

Ssiat hotteok (씨앗호떡) from Busan: the hotteok is deep-fried, cut open at the edge and filled with a mix of seeds and nuts, served in a paper cup. It is said to have originated in the Nampo-dong neighborhood in the 1980s.
Yachae hotteok (야채호떡): a savory version with glass noodles and vegetables, known for example from Namdaemun Market in Seoul.

There are also many newer kinds, for example with green tea, corn or kimchi.

You can find more Korean street food to make at home in our recipes for tteokbokki and dalgona. Snacks from Korea to try are in our Korea category.