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Apple pie hotteok

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Adapted from Maangchi.

Ingredients

Scale
  • for the dough:
  • 1 cup (about 235 g) warm water
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp yeast
  • 1 tbsp oil, plus more for cooking
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour (see Notes for adjustments with mochiko flour)
  • for the filling:
  • 1/2 cup finely diced apple
  • 1/2 tsp lemon juice (optional)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon (or more, if you prefer)
  • 2 tbsp chopped walnuts, peanuts, or nuts of your choice (optional)

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, combine warm water, sugar, yeast, and oil. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, or until yeast begins to foam. In a large bowl, whisk together salt and flour. Once the yeast mixture is foamy, add to the flour mixture and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until the mixture forms a sticky, wet dough. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator overnight, or until doubled and small bubbles dot the surface (about 1-2 hours at room temperature). The photo of the bowls above shows what this should look like.
  2. Once doubled, gently deflate the dough by scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and let it rise another 20-30 minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Combine the apple and lemon juice in a small bowl, then add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts and mix until apple is well-coated and the sugar forms a thick paste. The apple should be quite thickly coated, which is what makes for a nicely gooey filling.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. It should be soft and billowy but should hold its shape and spread on the surface only slightly (as shown in the marble photo, above). If it seems too wet, you can knead in a few more tablespoons of flour, but try not to add too much, as the stickiness is what will make the pancakes soft once fried. Dust the entire ball liberally with flour, then shape it gently into a long log and cut it into eight to ten even pieces. Working with one piece at a time, flatten the dough into a circle and place a generous amount of filling (about 1-2 tbsp) into the center. Pinch the dough up around the filling to seal.
  4. Heat a tablespoon or so of oil in a non-stick or cast-iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add a dough ball to the pan and let cook until golden-brown on the bottom, about 30 seconds to one minute. (You can add a few dough balls to the pan at a time if they’ll fit, but be sure to leave plenty of room between each so that they have room to expand when squashed.) Flip the ball to its uncooked side, then press down gently with a spatula to flatten into about a 4-inch disc — go slowly, so that the hotteok doesn’t burst. Continue to cook for one minute or until golden, then flip once more. Turn the heat to low and cover the skillet. Let cook for a final minute to let the filling fully melt, and make the next hotteok ball while you wait.
  5. Transfer the cooked hotteok to a plate and repeat until all the dough and the filling is used up. Enjoy hot!

Notes

For regular hotteok, omit the apples and lemon juice, and increase the nuts (if you like) by a few more tablespoons.

Many recipes I came across called for one part sweet rice (mochiko) flour to create a chewier, crispier hotteok; many others also called for milk. I actually found a plain AP flour and water version was nice and crisp on the outside but pleasantly chewy inside, without the slightly gummy, dense kind of chewy you get from mochi, and I liked that best. If you love mochi, though, you might find you prefer the sweet rice flour version — in that case, substitute half the all-purpose flour by weight for mochiko flour, and use 1 cup all-purpose flour and about 3/4 cup mochiko flour instead of 2 cups all-purpose.

On the use of milk, I was also surprised to find that I preferred the water version over milk, since I’ve really liked milk in the past for its ability to create a more tender crumb. Maybe it’s the fact that you want these to have a little bit of a chewy pull, but I found that the version with water was both softer and more pliable, with a satisfying chew.

Finally, I left the apples uncooked before frying but diced them fairly small, so that they were partially cooked when the hotteok were done. I liked that it left a bit of crunch, but if you’d like softer apples, I’d recommend sauteing the diced apples for a minute or two in just a bit of oil, letting it cool briefly, then mixing it with the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts.

Find it online: https://tworedbowls.com/2015/11/18/apple-pie-hotteok/