Hotteok is a Korean pancake, usually filled with brown sugar and walnuts, and pan-fried on both sides until golden brown. The yeast-leavened dough used to make it almost borders on a batter, because of how wet, loose, and kind of sticky it is. The reason why that consistency is optimal, however, is that when fried, the dough gets crispy and light. For this recipe, I went the scallion route as an homage to scallion pancakes, a Taiwanese household favorite. I grew up eating lots of scallion pancakes. These kind of a variety of iterations, ranging from thin, multilayered pancakes to a fluffy, bread-like pancake. Regardless of the version, the dough is laden with plenty of chopped up scallion, or green onion. I wanted to use scallions in a hotteok dough to make this savory, crispy, light pancake with all of that scallion goodness, and because I had a lot of shredded mozzarella I was trying to use up, stuffed some of that in there, just because who doesn’t love a good cheese pull? Well, besides the lactose intolerant and the vegans, but still. Hotteok dough it usually wrapped around a filling before it is seared and pressed on a griddle. This allows the dough itself to cook faster, since it is rolled out thinner around a filling this way. So I wanted to take full advantage of that by stuffing mine with shredded mozzarella to really cement this as a savory hotteok, which is actually something occasionally done in Korea as well! When served in this preparation, the hotteok dough itself creates a pancake more similar to the fluffy bread-like one that I had just mentioned. Incidentally, a long time ago, my mom actually made something similar to this recipe for us as kids, that being a scallion pan-bread situation, and it was one of my favorite things she ever made. So for that reason, this recipe is dedicated to my mom.

When it comes to this recipe, I would only give it a 5/10 in terms of difficulty. The hardest aspect of it technically would be the dough, since it is yeast-based. All you need to know about yeast is that it is temperature-sensitive, and the best way to work with it is making sure that you aren’t adding anything that is too hot to the dough when you are making it. Speaking of things that might be too hot when added to the dough, let’s talk the flavor oil. I wanted to do the Chinese technique of pouring hot oil onto your scallions and garlic, just to bloom them and give them a fragrant, nutty flavor and create this super flavorful oil. Do not add the oil while it is hot to your dough, or else that will almost certainly kill your yeast, and your pancakes will be dense and rubbery. The gorgeous aspect of this oil is that the scallions and garlic get really nutty and fragrant with an almost sweet finish. So that being imparted into the dough is just an additional flavor bomb. For the mozzarella, which is naturally a bland ingredient, we are adding it plain into the middle of the pancakes, so trying to impart more flavor into the actual dough is how we sort of balance that out. The other things worth noting are the equipment you should use. A stand mixer makes this recipe 100 times easier, especially once with a dough hook. With the searing of the dough, there is a pivotal point where you flip the dough, and press down on it to get a nice, hard sear on the other side. I recommend a nonstick or cast iron pan for the searing aspect, since it creates the least amount of mess. If you somehow have a pancake griddle, I would avoid that: it does not get hot enough to get that nice Maillard effect you need for a crispy pancake. These pancakes were light, crispy, and garlicky in all of the best ways possible, while the stringy, cheesy filling just made this taste like a mozzarella stick, but in savory scallion pancake-hotteok form!

For the flavor oil:
4 scallions
8 cloves garlic
1/4 cup canola or grapeseed oil

Mince up the scallions and garlic and place into a heatproof bowl. Heat up the oil until it reaches 300 degrees F. Pour the oil into the bowl containing the garlic and scallions. Allow the oil to cool down before attempting to use.

For the dough:
1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp honey
a pinch of salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
flavor oil
1 egg

In a bowl, mix together the yeast, water, and honey, and allow that to sit for 10 minutes in a warm place. To that mixture, add in the other ingredients and mix everything together until a smooth and elastic dough form. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover the top with cling wrap. Allow the dough to rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

For assembly:
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
canola or grapeseed oil

Divide your dough into 16 equal pieces. Wrap the dough around a generous pinch of mozzarella. Heat up a pan with a little oil on medium heat. Sear the pancakes on one side for 3-4 minutes, until golden brown. Flip the pancakes and press down on them, searing them on the other side for another minute.