Korean Pancake Decorations, Cuts, & How to Serve

During holidays or just for fun, Korean pancakes are decorated to add flavor and color, which makes the pancakes more beautiful and appetizing.

Decoration Ideas

Here are some pancake decoration ideas that you can implement next time you are making Korean pancakes.

• Garlic Chive (부추): Add a short strip of chive to the center of your pancake. This creates a simple and cute design. You can place as many strips of chive as you want in the center. Three small strips in a fan shape also look very nice. You can also use a piece of green onion.
• Pepper: You can use red or green bell pepper slices or Korean pepper slices to decorate your pancake. Shape the slices into a star pattern in the center of the pancake.
• Carrot: Add raw minced carrot to the center of the pancake. It will cook as the pancake cooks. You can also do this with pepper to add a different color.
• Crown daisy (쑥갓): This green is called Crown daisy. It is often added to pancakes when decorating them. There are various ways you can use this green to decorate. You can add a whole leaf to the center of the pancake. You can also add a whole leaf to the center of the pancake and then add thin slices of Korean pepper to the top of the green to make it look like a flower. Another option is to add a whole piece of this green to the center and add a sliced pepper on the side of the pancake to resemble a tree and moon.
• Black Sesame Seeds: This is one of the easiest ways to decorate your pancake. There are two ways you can add your black sesame seeds. You can add the black sesame seeds to the batter and mix, or you can add the black sesame seeds to the top of your pancake in the center to make a pretty contrast.
• Water Dropwort (미나리): You can add a whole leaf of this green to the center of the pancake. You can also create a cute and simple rose design by placing two of these leaves in the center of the pancakes and adding one piece of sliced pepper on the top section to make it look like a rose.
• Shredded Red Pepper (실고추): Cut the shredded red pepper into smaller pieces and place it in the center of the pancake. It adds color and spice to your pancake.
• Spicy Pepper (청양고추): You can place one to three slices of pepper. You can mix up the colors red and green to make an interesting design. I like to fan the peppers out in the center to look like a 3-leaf clover. Otherwise, I just place one slice of pepper in the center for a simple look. These pepper slices will add some spice to your pancake.

Cutting Korean Pancakes

When you make Korean pancakes using batter, you can make a large pancake or smaller individual pancakes if you prefer. When making larger pancakes using batter, you can cut them into these two different styles.

• Pizza cut: Cut your round pancake into equal slices by cutting in half, then cut in half again into equal sections.
• Grid cut: This cut makes bite-sized pieces. Cut the pancake into a grid pattern. This is the most common way I have seen Korean pancakes cut.

Serving Cooked Pancakes

When you are done cooking your pancakes, do not immediately stack them on top of each other, or they will get soggy. Instead, it’s better to place them next to each other on a large plate with a towel on top or ideally on a 채반, which is like a wicker tray that lets the pancakes “breathe” to avoid steam build-up. You want to avoid stacking them into a pile, but you can get away with shingling them if you need the space. The main reason why we don’t stack is so that the steam from the other pancakes doesn’t run the crispy texture that you achieved or cause the coating to fall off the pancakes.