Hotteok is a popular Korean street food often enjoyed as a winter snack or dessert. Essentially a type of pancake, instead of having syrup drizzled on top, hotteok is filled with cinnamon-sugar syrup and various nuts/seeds. Growing up in Seoul, I really enjoyed getting a nice hot hotteok on a cold winter day. Now living in New England, hotteok with gooey, dripping hot syrup is one of the things that helps get me through the long, harsh winters here.

There are instant hotteok mixes that make it easy to make this at home, but they can be challenging to find unless you happen to live near a Korean grocery store. Making the dough from scratch would probably result in some really nice hotteok, but even I’m a little intimidated by having to make and knead some dough just to have a little hotteok. But there is a shortcut! One day, while browsing the frozen food aisle, I realized frozen dinner rolls were just about the right size for hotteok. After a few hours of letting the dough thaw and rise, I filled the rolls with cinnamon sugar, then flattened and fried them. I was very pleased to find they tasted just like hotteok with no modifications!

Besides waiting a few hours for the dough, this recipe is super simple to make. After one try, this delicious, vegan recipe will soon become one of your winter must-haves, up there with hot chocolate or spiced cider! Scroll down to see how you can make sweet, nutty hotteok in your own home!

Ingredients

10 Frozen dinner roll doughs
1/3 cup Sunflower seeds
1/3 cup Peanuts
1 cup Dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
2 Tbsp Vegetable oil, more for coating hands

Instructions

The first step in making Hotteok from Frozen Dinner Rolls is defrosting and letting the dough rise. Defrost the frozen dinner rolls according to the package instructions. Place the frozen rolls on a large plate or a baking sheet pan, and cover with plastic wrap. The dinner rolls I used can either be thawed and risen in the fridge for 8–16 hours or at room temperature for 3–5 hours. Let the rolls rise until they double in size.

Once the dinner rolls have fully risen, fill them with nuts/seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Begin by preparing the filling for the hotteok. Chop the peanuts with a knife or a food processor/blender. Then, add chopped peanuts, sunflower seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to a bowl. Gently toss to combine.

Next, wrap the filling with the dinner roll dough. First, grease your hands with some oil to prevent the dough from sticking to you. Then, stretch the dough until it is about 3 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Put 2 Tbsp of filling in the center and gather the edges of the dough to pinch them closed.

Preheat a greased skillet or griddle on low heat, and place the hotteok onto the skillet/griddle with the seam down. Press the hotteok flat with a spatula. Cook for 5 minutes, turn the hotteok over, and cook for 5 additional minutes. Remove from heat once the cinnamon-sugar filling has turned to syrup and the outside is golden brown. If you are using a skillet, you will probably need to cook them in batches. Enjoy while hot, but be careful not to burn yourself!

If you like this recipe, you might also like another Korean dessert recipe, Snowy Shaved Ice with Berries. Also, subscribe via email or follow on Instagram so you don’t miss any of my latest recipes like this!

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