Hakka Hot Plate Pancakes

We have just came back from Sabah last Tuesday. However, my entry today would not be on the trip. Today I will just skip writing about the Sabah trip and focus on the Hakka Hot Plate Pancakes that I made during the just concluded weekend. The Sabah trip would have to wait. *wink wink*

Not too long ago, I have the opportunity to taste a type of pancake, which to me seems quite special. It was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside with peanut fillings. It was a treat from dear hubby's friend who bought it back from somewhere in Johor. I can't really remember where. It might be from Yong Peng, if I am not mistaken.

I have never seen this type of pancake before but I remember I saw something similar to this in one of the food blog, which appears to be a type of Korean pancake, known as hotteok or hoddeok. I was contemplating to make this at home since dear hubby appears to like it so much. So, I went online to look for the recipe. However, at that point of time, I still do not know what this pancake is called. So, I tried Google-ing "Chinese pancake, peanuts fillings" but can't seems to find what I am looking for.

Then few days later, I saw the pancake in "Axian Food Adventure" which was then featuring local Chinese kuehs/delicacies. From there, I got to know that it is a type of Hakka pancake. So I attempted to look for the recipe again. This time, I googled "Hakka Pancake". Yes! I have nailed it. Now I know what it is called; Hakka Hot Plate Pancake. No matter how I search, I am still unable to get hold of any recipe although there are some write-ups and reviews of restaurant selling this pancake. I am still perplexed as to why there were no recipe to be found online. I believe there is recipe for this pancake online, but in Chinese. Since, I can't read Chinese, it is only logical that I can't find any recipe for this pancake.

I was adamant in attempting to make this pancake at home. Although I can't find any recipe, I will still make this but I have to look for the hotteok pancake recipe and see if I can use it as substitute. However, I can't recall where have I seen this hotteok recipe before. So, I tried searching the few blogs that I always read and luckily I found it. How about the peanut fillings? Fine, I will recreate it using my own creativity. There are plenty of recipes for peanut fillings to be found online. However, I decided to rely on my own creativity. If there is any similarity with any peanut fillings recipe out there, it is just a co-incident.

I noticed that the recipe that I used for the skin calls for very high ratio of liquid. Nevertheless, I still followed the recipe. It proved to be a very bad decision as the dough was very sticky and difficult to handle although I have added in more flour. I can't add more flour than I have added as it will disrupt its ratio against other ingredients like yeast, salt and sugar. So, it remained sticky. I have to flour the surface and my hands as well as each of the dough balls to ensure that I am able to wrap the fillings. Once wrapped, I flatten them and let them sit for a while before pan-frying them one by one without oil.  

As the dough was very sticky, I just managed to divide it into 8 balls. There were leftovers but too sticky for me to handle so I just threw them away. The original recipe stated that it can be made into 12 pancakes, weighing 45g each. If I were to make this again, I will definitely reduce the ratio of the liquid. I have leftovers of the peanut fillings as well due to the lesser pancakes than what I initially estimated to make.

Hakka Hot Plate Pancakes

Ingredients:

180 ml milk

80 ml warm water

1 tsp sesame oil

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup glutinous rice flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp instant yeast

Note to own self: To reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe

Method:

1. Add all the ingredients into breadmaker

2. Run breadmaker according to manufacturer's instruction on dough function

3. Once cycle completed, transfer out to table top and knead to release air.

4. Divide into 12 smaller dough balls, weighing 45g each.

Ingredients for fillings:

150 g toasted peanuts, finely ground

45g toasted sesame seeds

75g sugar

30g butter

Assembling the Pancakes

1. Thoroughly mix all the ingredients for the fillings and set aside.

2. Take a dough ball and flatten it. Add a spoonful of fillings in the centre and wrap it into a ball.

3. Flatten the ball with palm and set aside to be pan-fried later.

4. Repeat step 2 and 3 for all the dough balls.

5. Once completed, pan fry each side of the pancakes without oil till cooked and puffed-up.