Yakgwa

A dense wheat pastry fried gently from cold oil and then left to soak in warm syrup for hours.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains honey.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 300 g plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons sesame oil
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 4 tablespoons rice wine
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger

For the syrup

• 200 g honey or rice syrup
• 100 ml water
• 1 piece ginger, 3 cm, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick

To fry and finish

• 1 litre oil for frying
• crushed pine nuts, to finish

Method

1. IT IS FRIED SLOWLY FROM COLD OIL AND THEN SOAKED IN SYRUP. Both halves are unusual. The pieces go into oil at about 100C and the temperature is raised gradually -- they sink, sit, and slowly rise as they cook through, which takes fifteen minutes or more. Dropped into hot oil the outside sets at once, the inside stays raw and dense, and the syrup can then only coat the surface instead of going all the way in.
2. AND THE SOAK IS HOURS, NOT MINUTES. Straight from the fryer into warm syrup, and left there three hours at least, overnight if you can. The pastry is dense on purpose so that it can drink; a yakgwa that has only been dipped is dry in the middle and the difference is obvious in one bite.
3. THE SYRUP IS WARM AND THE PASTRY IS HOT, which is the same rule as the baba on the French pages: hot cake into warm syrup draws it in. Cold syrup sits on the surface.
4. THE DOUGH IS NOT KNEADED AT ALL. The oil and honey are rubbed through the flour and it is pressed together, like a shortcrust. Kneaded, it develops gluten, puffs in the oil and goes tough and bready instead of staying dense and short.
5. AND THE PIECES ARE PRICKED THROUGH. A skewer or fork through the middle of each, so the oil can get in and the syrup after it. Unpricked ones balloon and come out hollow.
6. Syrup: honey, water, ginger and cinnamon simmered 5 minutes, then set aside to stay warm.
7. Flour and salt in a bowl. The sesame oil rubbed through with the fingertips until it looks like damp sand.
8. PASSED THROUGH A SIEVE, which is what makes the texture even.
9. The honey, rice wine and ginger stirred together and added. Pressed into a dough with the hands -- NOT kneaded.
10. Wrapped and rested 30 minutes.
11. Rolled to 1.5 cm thick and cut into 4 cm squares or rounds. Each one PRICKED right through 3 or 4 times.
12. The oil heated to only about 100C -- a piece should sink and bubble lazily.
13. The pieces lowered in and cooked 10 MINUTES at that temperature, then the heat raised to about 140C for 5 to 8 minutes more, until deep gold and floating.
14. Lifted out and put STRAIGHT into the warm syrup.
15. SOAKED 3 HOURS or overnight, turned once. Lifted out, drained on a rack, and the pine nuts scattered on. Keeps two weeks in a tin.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes