‘Cuz I really need to know.

Today I’m doing a step-by-step of a yummy recipe: Hoddeuk.

Hoddeuk - pronounced hoe-duck - are Korean pancakes, stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. I made a couple practice batches today before I make them for a Primary activity next month. (Yes I have planning issues. We’ll address that another day.)

Did I say holy yum yet? Because they are.

Start with 1/4 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon yeast.

Add 3 tablespoons warm water.

Give a nice little stir and leave it alone for 10 minutes or so.

While you’re waiting, measure out 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour. (Forgive my cracked-up big measuring cup. Cheap plastic. It’s still good for measuring dry stuff, though. It’s kind of like me - oversized, slightly cracked, but still mostly useful.)

Add 1/4 teaspoon salt…

… and 3/8 cup milk. If you don’t have an eighth-cup measure, you can measure it as…

- just over 5 tablespoons

- about 17 teaspoons or

- approximately 2.75 ounces. (Yes, I have an unhealthy love of my little measuring glass. So?)

After 10 minutes have passed, add the flour, salt and milk to the yeast mixture. Mix well.

It’ll be pretty sticky, but that’s ok.

Cover this with plastic wrap and let the yeast do its thing for 3 hours.

Yep, 3 hours.

Don’t worry, it’s worth it.

OK, 3 hours have passed. Get a small bowl and mix 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons finely chopped nuts. Now, traditionally, walnuts are used, but I don’t care for walnuts (good thing for my sister, who is allergic to them) so I used almonds. They could also be omitted, I’m sure - I’ll be making a nut-free test batch soon. We have several kids with nut allergies in Primary, and Primary activities are usually best if you don’t end up sending kids to the hospital.

Anyway. Mix it all together.

Don’t the almonds look yummy?

After 3 hours, the dough is pretty puffy.

Before you form the hoddeuk, line a plate with foil (otherwise the dough will stick to the plate - I tried waxed paper, too, but the dough stuck to that as well) and put a large, greased, frying pan over medium heat. Now wash your hands & dry them well… then grease them, so the dough won’t stick to your hands. Take a handful of dough, flatten it out, put a spoonful of the cinnamon/sugar/nut mixture in the middle, and fold it in on itself, sealing the mixture in; pat into a ball and place on foil-lined plate. Continue until you’ve used up all the dough. I really wish I had a photo of this, but it was pretty much impossible to photograph on my own. Just know that it’s a sticky process and you’ll probably have to re-grease your hands a couple times. Also, I made two batches of hoddeuk dough and I still have plenty of the sugar mix left over - probably enough for another batch - so don’t be surprised if you don’t use it all up. (Of course, you could just go for broke and put more than a spoonful of mix in each hoddeuk, too.)

Place the dough balls into the skillet, and flatten them using a greased spatula. (Yes, you’ll need to spray your spatula. Trust me on this. No, I don’t usually use a metal spatula on my pan, but all the plastic spatulas had holes (slats, lines, whatever) in them and they got stuck in the dough.)

My instructions said to cook them like pancakes - except that they don’t bubble on top. Mine bubbled quite a bit at the edge, though, and if you look closely, the sides get a little dry-looking as they cook.

 

You just have to lift ‘em up and check the underside to watch for golden brown-ness.

Dang, don’t these look good?

After they’re all nice and golden on both sides, they’re ready to enjoy.

You can kind of see the layer of yumminess in the middle. Yeah, I should have put more than a spoonful in.

 

But they’re still really, really good. Plain. With butter. With whipped cream. With honey. We haven’t found a variation yet we didn’t like.

 

V had three - he preferred butter AND honey, thankyouverymuch.

Me too.