Beginner
Korean
Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)
Source: Traditional
30 min3420 kcal
Dairy-free🌶️🌶️
Yakgwa (Honey Pastry)
A flower-stamped wheat pastry deep-fried until amber, then steeped in honey syrup until soft and fragrant — the most refined of Korea's traditional sweets.
Source
Recipe by Korean confectioners (hangwa) · 🏺 Traditional
Korean traditional confection / 한국 전통 한과 — A deep-fried honey pastry from Korea's hangwa confection tradition. Prized since the Goryeo dynasty — when it was served at Buddhist rites and banquets and even sent abroad as a gift — yakgwa is made from wheat flour, sesame oil and rice wine, fried and then steeped in honey or grain syrup.
Watch it being made · 3 videos
⏱ 90 min🍽 12 servings🔥 210 kcal🇰🇷 South Korea
VegetarianDairy-free
Steps
Rub the sesame oil into the flour and salt with your fingertips until it looks like damp sand, then sift it once.
Stir the honey, rice wine and water together, add to the flour, and gently press — do not knead — into a soft dough.
💡 Kneading builds gluten and makes yakgwa hard; press just until it holds so it stays flaky.
Roll the dough about 1 cm thick, cut into squares, and press each with a patterned mold or score the tops in a crosshatch.
Warm the grain syrup with a little water, ginger and cinnamon and keep it ready off the heat.
Fry the pieces in oil at a low 100°C first so they cook through and puff, then raise the heat to brown them to deep amber.
💡 The two-temperature fry is the secret to a flaky, layered inside rather than a hard crust.
Drain briefly, then submerge the hot pastries in the syrup for several hours (or overnight) until soaked through; garnish with pine nuts.
💡 Tips
- Soak long enough that the syrup reaches the center — a well-made yakgwa is moist all the way through.
- Honey makes this vegetarian but not vegan; use a fully plant-based grain syrup if that matters.
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