Today I’m going to show you how to make yakgwa (약과), traditional Korean honey cookies. They’re deep-fried, layered cookies made with honey, sesame oil, ginger, and soju, then soaked in a sweet, fragrant syrup. When you take a bite, the syrup fills your mouth, and the cookie is wonderfully juicy, tender, and crumbly. The combination of sesame oil, honey, ginger, and cinnamon gives yakgwa its unique, irresistible flavor.
Koreans have been making yakgwa for more than a thousand years. Yakgwa is a type of yumilgwa, a traditional Korean deep-fried confection. The word “yak” means “medicine,” and “gwa” means “confection.” The name comes from the traditional belief that honey had healing and restorative properties. Honey was once a precious and expensive ingredient, so yakgwa was considered a very special treat.
Traditionally, yakgwa was served on special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, holidays, and ancestral memorial ceremonies. I remember visiting my grandmother’s house during Korean holidays. She would be waiting for us with a huge tray piled high with homemade yakgwa, almost like a mountain! She made so many that she didn’t have time to shape each one beautifully, so she simply cut them into diamonds. Sweet syrup collected at the bottom of the tray, and she decorated the cookies with very thin, threadlike strips of fresh ginger. They were so pretty!
I still remember those delicate ginger threads, and I used the same garnish in this recipe, just like my grandmother.
One of the secrets to good yakgwa is creating beautiful layers that absorb the syrup. Unlike noodle dough, yakgwa dough shouldn’t be kneaded too much. Kneading develops gluten and makes the cookies chewy. Instead, gently press, fold, and roll the dough several times to create layers. That’s how you get that wonderful crumbly texture.
You can easily find yakgwa in Korean grocery stores these days, but homemade yakgwa tastes very different from the store-bought kind. Once you try making your own, you’ll see what I mean!
Enjoy the recipe, and let me know how you and your family like your homemade yakgwa!
Ingredients
Makes about 20-24 cookies
For the flour and oil blend
- 2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil (grape seed oil, vegetable oil, or corn oil)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
For the flavored honey mix
- 2 teaspoons grated and squeezed ginger juice
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- A pinch of ground black pepper
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ cup soju
For the cookie coating syrup
- 1 teaspoon grated and squeezed ginger juice
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup rice syrup (or corn syrup)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
Plus
- cooking oil for frying
- about 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds and/or pine nuts and/or ginger threads for garnish (optional)
Directions
Coat the flour in oil:
- Sift the flour through a coarse mesh strainer into a large bowl.
- Drizzle the sesame oil and the cooking oil over the flour in a circular motion. Add the cinnamon powder.
- Using a rice scoop (or a wooden spoon), mix the oil in with the flour until well blended. To break up any large lumps, gently rub small amounts of the flour mixture between your hands. Continue until the lumps are gone and the flour is evenly coated with the oil.
- Sift the seasoned flour into a bowl or an airtight container.
- Cover and set aside. You can refrigerate it for later if you’re not going to make the cookies right away.
Mix the flavored honey:
- Combine the ginger juice, salt, honey, soju, and black pepper in a small bowl.
- Mix well with a wooden spoon until the honey is dissolved. Set aside.
Make the coating syrup:
- Combine the ginger juice, rice syrup, water, sugar, and cinnamon powder in a large saucepan. The cookies will eventually be added to this pan, so choose one large and wide enough to fit all of them.
- Cook uncovered over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes until small bubbles pop up and cover about half the surface. The consistency of the syrup should still be runny. Remove from the heat.
You’re ready to make cookies now!
- Add the flavored honey and soju mixture to the oiled flour a little by little as you mix it in. Use a wooden spoon (or a rice scoop) in a chopping motion to mix it up, as opposed to kneading it in like bread or noodles. Eventually it will look like crumbled dough but it will form roughly into one lump.
- Put the dough on your large cutting board or workspace. Press and gently grab the dough with both hands to shape it up a bit, without kneading.
- Use a rolling pin to shape and beat it into a rectangle about 6 x 12 inches and ⅓ inch thick. Fold or cut it in half and then roll it out into a rectangle again. Do this a couple of times to give the cookies some nice layers.
- Cut the dough into about 1 inch squares or use a cookie cutter to create some fun shapes. I used a 2½ inch flower shaped pie plunger and a heart shaped cookie cutter, but some people just cut it into squares. You should get about 20 to 24 cookies.
- Poke some holes in the middle of the cookies with a chopstick so the dough cooks evenly in the oil.
Fry the cookies:
Yakgwa is fried twice. The first fry is longer and done at a low temperature, about 250°F (120°C). The second fry is shorter and done at a higher temperature, about 330°F (165°C). The first fry allows the cookies to cook slowly and evenly as the layers expand. Frying them at a high temperature from the start would brown the outside before the inside is fully cooked. The second fry gives the cookies a beautiful golden-brown color and a slightly crisp texture.
1st fry:
- Heat 2 inches of cooking oil in a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes. I used 4 cups grape seed oil in my 12-inch skillet.
- When the temperature reaches around 250°F (120°C), add the raw cookies one by one. They will sink to the bottom of the skillet at first but soon small bubbles will come up and about 5 minutes later they will float to the surface one by one.
- Turn them over with long wooden cooking chopsticks or tongs. Keep moving and turning them in the oil so they cook evenly, until both sides turn light brown, which should take about 5 minutes.
- Remove the cookies and put them into a stainless-steel strainer over a bowl. Drain the excess oil and set aside.
2nd fry:
- Increase the heat to medium-high for a couple of minutes until the oil heats up to about 330°F (165°C).
- Fry the cookies and turn them over for 2 to 3 minutes until both sides of each cookie turn a nice brown.
- Remove them from the oil and put them into a stainless-steel strainer over a bowl.
Coat the cookies in syrup:
- Drain the excess oil for a minute, then add all the cookies to the coating syrup in the pan.
- Mix them with a wooden spoon and let them sit in the pan at least for 3 to 4 hours or overnight, turning them over a couple of times now and then to soak them evenly.
Serve:
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the cookies from the pan and place some on a plate.
- Garnish with pumpkin seeds and/or pine nuts, and/or threads of ginger.
- Serve with your favorite tea or coffee. I usually eat them with green tea. You can freeze these cookies for months.
Buy this recipe's ingredients online
I really like Weee! they deliver quality packaged and fresh Korean ingredients to the continental USA. Cheaper and better than Amazon! Check them out!
I followed the recipe exactly and my dough was extremely wet. I double checked all my measurements and everything was right. I tried to add flour to compensate but by the time I was done the dough was dense and didn’t cook through. Really discouraged, I don’t see what I did wrong at all.
It seems the measuring cups and spoons you’re using might be different from the ones I use. Otherwise, the batter shouldn’t have turned out that runny. For reference, 1 cup in my measuring set equals 240 milliliters.
I made these cookies yesterday! Easy to make and yummy! The only problem i had is that they didn’t absorb a lot of syrup. Even though i let them stay overnight at the syrup it wasn’t absorbed and it stayed mostly on the outside. What did i do wrong? Can you give me any advice, please? Thanks in advance! And please keep giving us such nice recipes♥
Congratulations! I’m glad your cookies turned out delicious!
To ensure that the cookies soak up the syrup, you can heat up the syrup before adding the cookies. This will help the syrup to penetrate the cookies more easily.
Hi, can I use honey instead of rice syrup for the coating syrup? I keep bees, so honey is free for me! All your recipes are awesome, so tasty and never fail! thankyou from all my family and friends
Yes, you can. Honey is even better!
Great recipe, clear and detailed as always and fun to make. Thank you!
Awesome! I would love to share the photo of your yakgwa with all my readers!
These are the most enchanting cookies I’ve ever seen!
I can’t fry in my apartment, is it possible to bake them or use an air fryer machine instead? I know it won’t be the same, but I just must try these!
Thank you dear Maangchi for sharing with us :)