Yakgwa are Korean cookies that are twice fried and then soaked in a honey syrup to make them crunchy yet soaked in sweetness.
Jeanelle used Maangchi’s recipe (link) to make these Korean cookies and made minimal adjustments but I’ve written the recipe while following her process.
What Ingredients are used in Yakgwa?
Yakgwa is a rather unique cookie. It uses wheat flour, honey, and ginger to name a few. However, the most interesting ingredient is soju. It adds a bit of depth to the flavor of the cookie that I think is very important. Just make sure to get unflavored soju!
How Do You Make Yakgwa?
Yakgwa is a twice-fried cookie that is finished off by soaking in a sweet honey syrup. You’ll start off mixing wheat flour, oil and cinnamon. Then make a wet mixture of ginger, salt, pepper, honey, and soju. Combine these to make a dough. Roll out and shape and fry twice. Last step is to soak in another honey syrup.
Full list of ingredients and detailed steps at the end of this page.
Mix wheat flour, oil, and cinnamon.
Mix together wet ingredients to make the other half of the dough.
Mix the two together to create a dough that is a little springy. Roll out and shape with cookie cutters.
Make the honey syrup by heating the ingredients to melt the sugar.
Fry the cookies twice. The first one at low temp and the second at higher temp
Then drop the cookies in the honey syrup and soak them for at least 3 hours
Garnish with a single pine nut and enjoy!
VIDEO: Korean deep fried honey cookies.
Recipe
Yakgwa (Korean Deep Fried Honey Cookies)
Ingredients
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, sift the wheat flour. Then drizzle in sesame oil and cooking oil. Add the cinnamon powder and mix while removing lumps.
- If you have ginger root, you will need to turn this into ginger juice by grating and squeezing. Make sure to make enough for the dough and the honey syrup!
- In a small bowl, mix the ginger juice, salt, honey, soju, and black pepper until well combined and honey is dissolved.
- Add this to the wheat flour mixture and mix or knead until a dough is made.
- On a lightly dusted surface, roll the dough out to about ⅓ inch thick with a rolling pin. The dough will be a little springy.
- Shape your cookies using fun cookie cutter shapes. Use a smaller size as they will expand when frying. Poke a single hole in the middle of each cookie.
- Begin heating your oil for deep frying. You want to target 250℉ for oil temperature.
- In a large saucepan, combine ginger juice, honey, water, and sugar. After frying, the cookies will soak in the mixture so make sure the sauce pan you choose is big enough.
- Cook this over medium heat for 10-12 minutes or until little bubbles begin to cover the surface. The final consistency should be runny.
- Drop the cookies in the frying oil heated to 250℉, and fry for about 5 minutes or until the cookies are light brown on both sides after flipping.
- Remove cookies from oil and set aside. Raise the oil temperature to 330℉.
- Fry the cookies again at this higher temperature for about 2 to 3 minutes until they turn dark brown.
- Remove the cookies from oil and place somewhere the excess oil can drain. This could be a wire rack on a baking pan or a plate with paper towels.
- Next, add all the cookies to the honey syrup mixture and let them soak for 3 to 4 hours. Be sure to flip them so both sides of the cookie soak up the sweetness
- Once the soaking process is over, garnish with a single pine nut (or whatever garnish you'd like). Serve and enjoy!