Sweets & Desserts · XVII · The Sweet Star

Yakgwa

Yakgwa (Honey Pastry) · 약과

Difficulty: Medium
Time to plan: Dough and frying, plus at least 3 hr syrup soaking
Serves: 약과 16~20개 (4인 기준)
Recipe: 6 steps
Listed places: 3

Food notes and context

Yakgwa is a flour-based sweet cooked in oil and coated in syrup. This recipe uses sesame oil and honey in the dough, then separates shaping, frying and soaking into distinct stages.

Hotteok encloses its filling; yakgwa combines the dough itself with absorbed syrup. Compare those structures using small pieces. If serving sweetened tea alongside it, decide how much additional sweetness you actually want.

Cook this version

Images are AI-generated illustrations, not records of a kitchen test. Follow the written ingredients and steps. Ingredients and substitutions guide

Prep: Dough, shaping and syrup preparation
Cook: Two-stage frying and syrup heating
Wait: Syrup soaking at least 3 hr
Ready in: Dough and frying, plus at least 3 hr syrup soaking

Planning notes separate the waits and cooking stated in the steps below. These are not kitchen-tested total times; preparation, heating, cooling and overlapping tasks change the schedule.

Ingredients (약과 16~20개 (4인 기준))

Ingredient	Amount	Substitute abroad
All-purpose flour	200 g	Any all-purpose flour
Toasted sesame oil	3 tbsp	Any toasted sesame oil
Honey	2 tbsp	Any honey
Korean rice wine (cheongju)	3 tbsp	Sake or dry white wine
Fresh ginger juice	1 tbsp	Grate ginger and press the juice, or 1/2 tsp ginger powder
Salt	1/2 tsp	Same
Ground black pepper	A little	Same
Korean rice syrup (jocheong)	1 cup	Golden syrup, or honey and corn syrup 1:1; the true taste is at Korean grocers
Water (for the syrup)	1/2 cup	Same
Cinnamon stick	1	Cinnamon stick
Sliced fresh ginger (for the syrup)	3 to 4 slices	Same
Crushed pine nuts	2 tbsp	Chopped walnuts or pumpkin seeds
Frying oil	As needed	Canola or any frying oil

Step by step

1.Feed the flour with oil
Add the salt and pepper to the flour, pour in the sesame oil, and rub it through with your palms, then sift twice. The oil must spread evenly for the layers to rise in the fryer.
2.Mix the dough
Mix the honey, rice wine, and ginger juice ahead, pour into the flour, and combine with a cutting motion of the spatula, gathering it just into one mass. Never knead: gluten makes yakgwa hard.
3.Layer and cut the shapes
Halve and stack the dough two or three times to build layers, roll to 1 cm thick, and cut with 4 cm square or flower molds. Poke a hole through each center with a chopstick.
4.First low-heat frying
Slide the dough into oil at a low 90 to 100 degrees Celsius and fry gently about ten minutes, until the layers split open and the pieces float.
5.Second browning fry
Raise the oil to 140 to 150 degrees and fry to a deep brown, then lift onto a sieve to drain.
6.Soak in syrup and finish
Boil the rice syrup, water, ginger, and cinnamon once for the jipcheong syrup, then soak the hot pastries in it three hours or more. When the syrup reaches the center, lift them out and dust with pine nuts.

Measurement, doneness and storage references

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Places to check when planning a meal

Candidates to investigate for this food. Maps use sourced location records; confirm the current menu, opening and booking directly. This list is not a tasting review or an award certification.

Jangin Hangwa

Pocheon, Gyeonggi

Exact current location is not verified here. Confirm the venue through its official information before planning a visit.

Singung Traditional Hangwa

Pocheon, Gyeonggi

Exact current location is not verified here. Confirm the venue through its official information before planning a visit.

Galgol Hangwa (Gangneung Sacheon Hangwa Village)

Gangneung, Gangwon

Exact current location is not verified here. Confirm the venue through its official information before planning a visit.

The fictional face of this dish

Earth element · a round, full face

Golden and nonchalant on the outside, with sweetness layered deep inside: an Earth-type cauldron temperament. Slow to warm, but once attached it lasts, and the longer you rest, the deeper you get.

Upright: The devotion you left to rest finally seeps out as sweetness. The work you soaked without rushing takes in light to its center, and the syrup you poured overnight returns as the morning's reward.

Reversed: Impatience is leaving the syrup sitting on the surface. Stop crushing your own layers comparing your sweetness to others', and rewarm the cooled oil: back to basics.

The K-Roast take: Grandma's roast

Fictional food metaphors inspired by traditional face-reading, not measurements of your face or personality.

Those eyes are so big and round there are two full moons on your face. With the inspector's gaze thrown that wide open, your heart floats up in your complexion and hiding is not among your talents. Like yakgwa soaked half a day in syrup, the sweetness has seeped all the way through, and anyone can read your center from the surface. Stop straining at a poker face; even the dog next door knows your hand, child.

Those lips are plump as a slab of rice-cake dough. A Palace of Speech cushioned that thick means luck in food and luck in love overflowing. But remember, yakgwa dough loses its layers when overworked. Keep kneading your affection into just anyone and it is your own heart that turns to paste. Fold your affection gently, like cutting, and the layers survive. Understood?

That chin is broad and thick as the bottom of an iron cauldron. A solid chin means grit that laughs last. Just as yakgwa must hold out ten minutes in barely warm oil for its layers to rise, you cook slowly while the others boil over, needing that second frying before your true color shows. So no whining that you have not risen yet. Watch your oil temperature.

I teased you for cooking slow, but sweetness rested long runs deepest. That quiet affection layered inside you will have people lining up in the end, so wait for the day the lid comes off.
Grandma's blessing

Table compatibility

With sujeonggwa you share the same ginger and cinnamon blood, a match raised in one pot. But beside the fierce fermented force of hongeo-samhap, your gentle sweetness never gets to draw a breath.