Maejakgwa is a Korean traditional cookie that’s really popular. The ingredients are very simple! The combination of 3 kinds of flavors make this cookie very special: ginger, cinnamon, and the pine nuts.
The best part of this cookie is that it’s very crunchy! If all family members sit around together after dinner and taste these cookies, the sound of crunching from each member will give so much fun! You can make this large amount of cookies in 1 hour if you use your food processor, longer if you have to knead by hand.
Ingredients
Flour, salt, sugar, ginger, pine nuts, water, cinnamon powder, and vegetable oil.
Directions
- In a large stainless bowl, place 2 cups of all purpose flour, ½ ts salt, 1 TBS sugar, 1 TBS ginger juice, and ½ cup water. Knead by hand for about 20 minutes.
*tip: If you use a food processor, kneading takes about 2 minutes. Be sure to change the blades on your food processor to dough-making blades!.
- Put the cookie dough in a plastic bag and set it aside at least for 30 minutes.
- Chop 2 TBS of pine nuts to garnish the cookies. Set aside.
- Take the dough out from the plastic bag and roll it out with a rolling pin, into a roughly rectangular shape (about 50 cm x 40 cm, and 2 mm – or 1/16 inch – thick).
- Cut the sheet of cookie dough into little 2 cm x 6 cm rectangles.
- Put the leftover dough edges into a plastic bag to protect them from drying out.
- Make 3 slits in the middle of each piece of dough.
- Push one end of the dough through the center slit to a make ribbon shape.
- Take the leftover dough out and spread it on the cutting board with the rolling pin. Cut it into any of your favorite shapes: triangles, squares, whatever – or use a cookie cutter.
- Heat up vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan.
- *tip: Put a sample of the cookie dough into the heated oil to check if it’s the right temperature. The dough should float slowly on the surface of the heated oil.
Let’s Make syrup!
Place ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water into a pot and bring to a boil over low heat for about 20 minutes. About half of the water should evaporate, so the syrup is nice and thick.
- Turn the heat off and add 1 ts cinnamon powder and stir it well.
- Gently toss the cookies with the syrup to lightly coat them.
- Sprinkle the chopped pine nuts on top of the cookies.
- Serve it with tea.
Posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 3:54 pm.
Last updated on April 26, 2015.
Tagged: Christmas cookies, 매작과, ginger cookies, holiday cookies, Korean authentic food, Korean cookies, korean dessert, Korean recipes, korean traditional food, maejakgwa, Pine nut
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Thank you so much for sharing all your recipes and inspiring us to cook more great Korean food in our kitchen. I wanna try this ginger cookies soon but how long will it last in normal room temperature when put in a glass jar? I think it’s a good idea to share these lovelies and give them as gift in a jar. Many thanks to you Maangchi!
Hi.had a lot of fun making them,just love Korean cooking!
thanks for the recipe.
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OMG amazing, double color maejakwa! You must be a cooking genius!
I love ginger n that’s why i love this recipe. thanx a lot Maangchi..
See full size image
Hi,
I decided to make a Korean day here at home for my family and going to include these cookies to the menu :)
I was wondering, can I make the dough, cut and shape it a day or two ahead and fry it on time?
I tried making this cookies today , they turned out yummy . Very crunchy too .. i had fun making them . They’re a little time consuming , but i really don’t mind making it . It’s a fun project anyway .
Jay and Nick love the cookies , esp. my husband .. he said these cookies are too dangerous .. since he can’t stop snacking on them !!
Thanks Maangchi !
haha, dangerous ginger cookies! : ) Cheers, Olivia!
ok, this is the maejakgwa photo you uploaded. awesome! http://bit.ly/1absH3H
I just made this with my 7 yr old son…as a cooking activity. My son had a blast! And he loved the taste of these cookies. Thanks for the recipe, Maangchi!
yay! I’m so happy to hear that your son loved your maejakgwa! yaho! : )
Maangchi, I’ve just read an article about “Ddong ppang”. The article said that it’s a Korean Fortune cookies and it’s very popular there. If you have the recipe, could you please share me?? I think that the cookies is very cute. Thank you so much…
This is so cool. Just the other day my mom made some Chilean treats called “calzones rotos” (torn underwear in Spanish). Why do I mention this? Well, the shape is almost identical to maejakgwa!
Calzones rotos have baking powder in them so they are puffier than maejakgwa. And instead of a syrup, they are sprinkled with powdered sugar. But, I will definitely try making maejakgwa! :)
You can see a pic of calzones rotos here: http://www.midiariodecocina.com/2010/09/calzones-rotos.html
Interesting! “torn underwear” looks like maejakgwa! lol Thank you very much for sharing this information!
wow this Chilean dough looks like the Hungarian “csöröge fánk” http://www.flickr.com/photos/debreczeniemoke/4095977554/ It’s interesting to see how very similar recipes are developped on totally opposite parts of the world! Human thinking and tastes do not differ that much I guess!
“Human thinking and tastes do not differ that much I guess!” I totally agree with you! http://www.flickr.com/photos/debreczeniemoke/4095977554/ yeah it looks like maejakgwa!
it was very nice of you to share this recipe :) i tired it and i was very nice XD, thank you very much for sharing this :)
Thank you for your nice words! Happy cooking!