Sweets and drinksFried CakesKorea10 to 12 minutes cooking the syrup, two fries totaling about 12 minutes, 3 to 4 hours soaking or overnight
Yakgwa are glossy brown cookies, lightly crisp outside and tender within, soaked through with a syrup scented with cinnamon and ginger. They are a Korean classic, and one batch lasts for days. The hardest part is building the layers inside.
The trick is not to knead the dough like noodle dough, but to cut it together and then press and fold it gently. Heavy kneading develops gluten and gives a chewy cookie rather than a tender one.
This batch weighs about 738g, at roughly 205 calories per 100g.
Method
Sift of all purpose flour, about 240g, into a large bowl, drizzle 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil over it in a circle, then add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
Mix with a wooden spoon, then rub the flour gently between the hands to break up any lumps so it is loose and evenly coated with oil. Sift the mixture into a clean bowl, cover it and set it aside.
Mix 2 teaspoons of ginger juice, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1 pinch of ground pepper of honey, about 60ml, and of soju, about 120ml, in a small bowl until the honey dissolves.
Cook the syrup: put 1 teaspoon of ginger juice of water, about 120ml of rice syrup, about 120ml, 1 tablespoon of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon in a pot wide enough to hold all the fried cookies. Cook over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes until small bubbles cover about half the surface and the syrup is still fluid. Take it off the heat to cool.
Add the honey mixture to the flour a little at a time, cutting it in with a wooden spoon and never kneading. The dough will form small clumps and then come together as a mass.
Set the dough on a work surface, press it gently, fold it a few times, then roll it into a rectangle 15 by 30cm and 0.8cm thick. Fold it in half, roll it again and repeat 2 to 3 times to build layers.
Cut the dough into 2 to 3cm squares or stamp it with a flower cutter. Poke a few holes in the middle with a chopstick so they cook through evenly.
First fry: heat the oil to 120 degrees C and lower the pieces in. After 5 minutes they float, so turn them and fry another 5 minutes until pale gold, then lift them out to drain.
Second fry: raise the oil to 165 degrees C and fry quickly for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown, then lift out and drain.
Put the cookies in the pot of syrup, turn them gently to coat, and soak them for at least 3 to 4 hours or overnight, turning now and then.
Lift them onto a plate and decorate with pumpkin seeds, pine nuts or fine threads of ginger.
Tips
The layers come from cutting, pressing and folding rather than kneading, since heavy kneading develops gluten and gives a chewy cookie.
Soju is sold in Korean grocery shops, and a light rice wine stands in for it.
Rice syrup can be swapped for kOBE Monk Fruit Blend or malt syrup.
kOBE Monk Fruit Blend takes longer to dissolve, so it goes into the syrup pot at the start and gets stirred through as it cooks, rather than being sprinkled in at the end.
Two fries are needed: the first at low heat to open the layers, the second at high heat to color the shell.
A night in the syrup is best, and the cookies freeze for months.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.