About this recipe

✨

Recipe highlight

Why you’ll love it

If you want a Korean dessert that is both traditional and highly searched, yakgwa delivers that iconic honey shine and crisp tender bite with simple, precise technique.

Ingredients

• Dough
• 🌾 240 g all purpose flour (2 cups / 8.5 oz) gluten
• 🧂 2 g fine salt (½ tsp / 0.07 oz)
• 🌿 3 g ground cinnamon (1 tsp / 0.1 oz)
• 🫚 2 g ground ginger (½ tsp / 0.07 oz)
• 🟤 80 ml toasted sesame oil (⅓ cup / 2.7 fl oz) sesame
• 🍯 60 ml honey (¼ cup / 2 fl oz)
• 🥣 60 ml rice wine or water (¼ cup / 2 fl oz)
• Frying
• 🛢️ 700 ml neutral frying oil (3 cups / 24 fl oz)
• Honey syrup
• 🍯 180 ml honey (¾ cup / 6 fl oz)
• 🍚 120 ml water (½ cup / 4 fl oz)
• 🫚 10 g fresh ginger, thin slices (1 tbsp / 0.35 oz)
• 🍋 5 ml lemon juice (1 tsp / 0.17 fl oz)
• 🧂 1 g fine salt (¼ tsp / 0.04 oz)
• Finish
• 🌰 20 g pine nuts or sliced almonds (3 tbsp / 0.7 oz) nuts
• ⚫ 8 g toasted sesame seeds (1 tbsp / 0.28 oz) sesame

Preparation

• 1 Make the syrup In a small pot, simmer honey, water, ginger, lemon juice, and salt for 4 min, then turn off heat and keep warm. 🍯
• 2 Mix the dry ingredients In a bowl, whisk flour, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger until evenly blended. 🌾
• 3 Form the dough Add sesame oil and rub with your fingers until sandy, then add honey and rice wine, mix just until a smooth dough forms. 🟤
• 4 Rest the dough Cover and rest 15 min so the flour hydrates and the cookies fry evenly. ⏳
• 5 Shape Roll dough to 8–10 mm thickness, cut into 5 cm rounds, then pinch 5–6 small petals around the edge, poke 2–3 small holes in the center to prevent puffing. 🍪
• 6 First fry, low temperature Heat oil in a small deep pot to 150°C (302°F), fry 4–5 cookies at a time for 6 min, turning gently, until pale golden and set. 🌡️
• 7 Second fry, higher temperature Increase oil to 170°C (338°F) and fry the same cookies 2–3 min until deeply golden and crisp, then drain on a rack. 🔥
• 8 Soak for shine While still warm, dip each cookie in the warm syrup for 20 sec per side, then place back on the rack to drip and set 10 min. ✨
• 9 Finish and serve Sprinkle pine nuts and sesame on top while tacky, let set 10 min more, then serve with tea. 🌰

Timing details

Nutrition

Estimated values per serving.

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