Hot hot hotteok!

Hotteok. I first had this on the streets of Myeongdong at night. It was a very cold winter's night when I first arrived in Seoul. And this panfried sweet chewy cinnamony sugary pancake was a delight at 1000W.

But then it got better. I went to Busan and it was freezing. They sold hotteok with nuts for only 900W. The first one I had at one of the stalls was nice.

Then I came back a few hours later and noticed how popular another stall was. The line was massive!

And they had a self paying system. It was all go go go! You put money down, take your change, and grab a cup for each hotteok purchase. For the same price as the other place, it had extra raisins/sultanas in the nut mixture.

I didn't like it though. The raisins made it too sweet. I very much preferred the first place which wasn't as popular. This place was only popular because an actress was filmed buying one from there on a variety show... A bit overrated.

Anyway, a few months back, I was reeeeeeaaaally missing Korea. So I made myself some hotteok! Hehe :)

Hotteok
Makes about 8

1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dried active yeast
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup glutinous rice flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp chopped walnuts

roasted pinenuts, as extra

Dissolve 1tbsp sugar and yeast in water. Mix into flour, salt and the rest of the sugar, milk and oil.
Knead for 10mins. Cover, and leave to rise for about 3 hours.

For filling mixture, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts.

Fill dough with filling.

Oil pan, and shallow pan fry for about 10mins or so until golden brown.

Serve immediately. Cut a hole at one end, and fill with extra dry filling and pine nuts.

YUM!

Don't eat too many though.. as it's full of calories. I felt so fat after eating two of them in Busan... D: (Seriously, my face looked so plump when I left)

Baklava

It's hard to create something when you haven't tasted it before.


I.. haven't tried baklava before. I know what it is. I know what it looks like, and what it's made of .. but I just haven't eaten it before. Well, I decided to make it anyway. Because it has cinnamon in it and I love the smell of cinnamon. The only downfall about baklava though, is the butter. I tried to use the least butter possible here though! :P

Baklava
Makes about 30 servings

375g filo pastry
90g butter, melted
250g walnuts, crumbed
2 1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder

200ml water
125g sugar
2 tbsp honey

In a bowl, mix cinnamon with crumbed walnuts. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 170C.

Lay a baking pan with baking paper.
Brush a half a sheet of filo pastry with butter. Fold unbrushed half over brushed half.
Brush top of halved filo with butter. Align another half sheet of filo pastry over the top and repeat. Do this for 4 sheets (you will have 8 folded layers).
Spoon cinnamon walnut mixture onto the buttered filo pastry.
Apply another 4 sheets (8 folded layers as per previous instructions) on top to create another layer and sprinkle more mixture on top. Keep doing this until you have 4 layers of walnut mixture.


Brush the very top of the pastry with butter, then cut into diamonds.


Bake for 15-20min or until golden brown.

While the baklava is baking, make the syrup. Boil water, sugar and honey on medium heat for a few minutes before turning down to low and allowing all sugar to dissolve. Keep it on low heat until your baklava is ready.

Remove baklava from pan and carefully pour the syrup over the top.
Put the baklava back into the oven for another 5mins or so.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.


Serve with a hot cup of tea.

Let's play a game.

What looks like this..


And has this on top?


I finally got around to making a carrot cake. I spent so much time preparing the carrots and finely grating them with this hopeless grater that by the time I finished grating the 6 carrots, my right arm/hand was a bit disorientated and numb. -__- I do wish that I had a food processor to do it for me (I think we have an old one somewhere but I tend to do things the hard way and go manually than automatic for some reason..). I'm going to invest in a really good food processor one day!

Anyway, as nutritious as carrot cake sounds, it isn't any much better than just plain cake (because although there's no butter, there's the oil..). As you know, I don't like either oil nor butter so I try my best to keep it minimal.

Another thing I dislike are walnuts. Haha.. And there are walnuts in and on top of this. -__- I had a slice last night when it hadn't been frosted, so it's obvious that I'm no longer going to eat anymore because there's even more walnuts now!

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
Makes 1 large loaf pan

350g self raising flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
162g brown sugar

158g eggs (about 3 whole eggs), lightly beaten
100g greek style yoghurt
100g corn oil
100g golden syrup (may need to heat up and allow to cool if too viscous)

420g carrot, washed peeled and finely grated
50g walnuts, chopped

cream cheese frosting
extra chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 165C.

In a large bowl, combine flour, spices, baking soda and sugar.
Create a well in the flour mixture. Add in eggs, yoghurt, oil and golden syrup.
Mix until just combined.
Throw in carrots and walnuts.
Gently mix a few times till just combined.

Spoon into a greased or baking paper lined large loaf pan.
Bake for 1hr and 15mins or until cooked.

Serve immediately for a delicious crunchy crust and a warm soft internal cake.


Allow to cool before applying cream cheese frosting and extra walnuts.


Yummy either way! :) As you can see.. the cake was served immediately so a chunk of it was missing before the frosting could call the cake it's home. :P