The BIFF Square pancake of Busan: a yeasted dough round fried in oil, split open and stuffed with molten brown sugar and a full scoop of toasted seeds.

Hotteok came to Korea with Chinese traders, but Busan gave it the split-and-stuff treatment. On BIFF Square in Nampo-dong, stallholders began slicing the fried pancake open and packing it with sunflower, pumpkin and peanut seeds over the brown-sugar core, and the ssiat, or seed, hotteok became the street snack every festival-goer carries. The stalls still work in pairs, one frying, one stuffing, all winter long.

Where to eat Ssiat hotteok in Busan

1 editor pick for Ssiat hotteok in Busan, ranked by editorial score. All Busan signature dishes · Ssiat hotteok across every city.

Book food experiences in Busan

Korean cooking class in Haeundae, Busan★ 5.0 (107)

Viator · 3 h

Korean cooking class in Haeundae, Busan

## Special Cooking Dates: If you book for below dates, you will cook special Korean dishes which are described. 2026 Hanwoo (Korean beef) Bulgogi Cooking Class (Vegeta...

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Make it at home

Serves Makes 8 hotteok2 hrEasy

Ingredients

  • 300g strong flour, 100g glutinous rice flour, 7g dry yeast, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 280ml warm milk or water
  • Filling: 6 tbsp dark brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 tbsp each sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and crushed peanuts
  • Neutral oil for shallow frying

Method

  1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm liquid, mix into the flours and salt, and knead into a soft, sticky dough. Prove 1 hour until doubled.
  2. Mix brown sugar with cinnamon. Toast the seeds in a dry pan and set aside separately.
  3. Oil your hands, take a palm of dough, cup in a spoonful of the sugar mix and seal it shut.
  4. Shallow-fry in 1cm of oil, pressing flat with a press or spatula, 2 to 3 minutes a side until deep gold.
  5. Snip each pancake open along one edge and spoon the toasted seeds into the molten sugar pocket. Serve in a paper cup, seam up.

Editor tip. Stuff the seeds after frying, not before; cooked inside, they steam soft and lose the toasty crunch that defines the Busan version.

Common allergens: Wheat (gluten), Nuts and seeds.