Description
Traditional Korean honey cookies, deeply aromatic and sweet, soaked in ginger-honey syrup, perfect for tea time or dessert.
Ingredients
Scale
- 250g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons cheongju (Korean rice wine) or sake
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice
- 150g (½ cup) jocheong (rice malt syrup)
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 5 thin slices of fresh ginger
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 tablespoons water
- Oil for deep frying
- 20–24 pine nuts
Instructions
- Make the syrup first. Combine the jocheong, honey, ginger slices, cinnamon stick and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce to a low simmer and cook for 8–10 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and cool.
- Rub sesame oil into the flour. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon and salt. Drizzle the sesame oil and rub it into the flour until it resembles damp sand.
- Make the wet mixture. In a small bowl, whisk together honey, cheongju, warm water and ginger juice until smooth. Pour over the flour mixture and mix until a smooth dough forms. Do not knead.
- Chill the dough for 1 hour. Shape the dough into a flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
- Shape the cookies. Roll out dough to 8–10mm thickness and cut into pieces. Press a pine nut into the center of each cookie.
- Fry cookies at a low temperature (130–140°C or 265–285°F) for 8–12 minutes until pale golden.
- Second fry at a higher temperature (160–170°C or 320–340°F) for 2–3 minutes until golden brown.
- Transfer hot cookies to the syrup immediately and soak for 2–3 hours, turning gently.
- Remove from syrup and rest on a wire rack for 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
Yakgwa improves in flavor over the first few days after making. Serve with barley tea or strong black coffee.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Frying
- Cuisine: Korean
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 150
- Sugar: 10g
- Sodium: 50mg
- Fat: 7g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 22g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 2g
- Cholesterol: 0mg