Hi Everyone, today, I will show you how to make a very delicious traditional Korean cookie called “maejakgwa” in Korean. These lightly ginger flavored cookies are very crunchy and are covered with a sweet syrup. Not only are they delicious, they look very pretty. The way of making the pretty shape is also fun. Try it someday. π
Yield: 12 Cookies
Short Korean Lesson
- GuMeong (ꡬλ©) = Hole
- GuSeok (ꡬμ) = Side, Point, Corner
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients
- β Cup All-Purpose Flour
- ΒΌ Cup Water
- Β½ tsp Grated Ginger
- 2 Tbsp Pine Nuts
- β tsp Salt
- Some Oil for Deep Frying
Syrup Ingredients
- ΒΌ Cup Sugar
- ΒΌ Cup Water
Directions
Grate a piece of ginger to get Β½ generous tsp of it.
Mix ΒΌ cup of water and the grated ginger together. Set it aside while you are preparing the other ingredients.
To make the syrup, add ΒΌ cup of sugar and ΒΌ cup of water in a small sauce pan. Do not stir it. Cook it on high.
Once the sugar dissolves, boil it until the surface of the water becomes covered with bubble. Reduce the temperature to low.
Cook for 6 to 8 more minutes, or until the syrup becomes thicker, but is still runny. Do not stir it.
When the syrup is done cooking, remove the pan from the heat, cover it, and let it cool.
Obtain β cup of flour and β tsp of salt. I used Sempio’s flour for this recipe. Their flour is very fine and gives a nice chewy texture when cooked. The quality of Sempio’s product is very good. If you get a chance to try this product, I highly recommend you to try it. If you do not have Sempio’s flour, use all-purpose flour instead.
Sift the flour and salt mixture.
Strain the ginger water. You will get about 4 Tbsp of it.
Little by little, add the ginger water to the flour. Mix the flour and water to make a dough. At the end, you will use about 3Β½ Tbsp of the ginger water.
Knead the dough for several minutes, or until it gets nice elastic texture. Shape the dough into a ball.
Wrap the dough with some plastic wrap and set it side for about 10 minutes.
Roll the dough out into about a 9-inch circle.
Cut the rolled dough into 2-inch by 1-inch rectangle pieces. You will get about 12 pieces. You can use either a knife or a pizza cutter for this step. Cut the dough in half lengthwise, and then cut both ends 2 inches away from the center line. Turn the cutting board, and then cut the two big pieces into 1 inch strips.
In this step, preheat some oil for deep frying. Gently fold one piece in half lengthwise, and then cut 3 equally spaced lines into the dough, cutting half way down the length of it. The outer two cuts should be a little shorter than the middle cut.
Open the piece of dough back up and start to push the one end down through the center.
Continue to push down and pull it back out until the one side is completely upside down. The effect you get will be that the edges twist around.
You will get about 12 pieces along with some extra pieces from the edges.
To check the temperature of the oil, I use the leftover pieces. Put one of the pieces into the preheated oil, if it floats to the top in 2 seconds, the oil temperature is right. You do not want to have it on too high or low of a temperature. It was medium-high on my stove.
Put the pieces of dough into the oil one by one. After you put a piece to the oil, it will float. Then hold the shape of the cookie with chopsticks so that the shape does not get deformed.
Fry the cookies for about 3 minutes, or until both sides of the cookies become nicely golden brown. Take them out one by one.
Put the fried cookies on some paper towels to remove some of the grease.
Add the cookies to the syrup and cover them with syrup evenly.
Obtain about about 2 Tbsp worth of pine nuts. Remove the top parts of them.
Put the pine nuts in a zipper bag and smash them with a rolling pin or some other object to make crumbs.
Place the cookies on a plate and garnish them with some pine nut crumbs. If you want, you can also sprinkle some cinnamon powder on top.
Fry the left over cookie dough pieces until they become golden brown.
Dust the left over fried cookies with powdered sugar. My husband likes them with powdered sugar on top too. It reminds him funnel cakes. π
These cookies look very fancy and delicious. If you have special guests, serve them these special Korean cookies. Enjoy! π
Please leave a comment. I’d like to communicate with you more. π Have a great weekend.
Wow! I’m Korean and even I haven’t heard of this treat before. It looks interesting! Hope to try soon. Thanks for the recipe π
hi Stew,
It seems like there are more Koreans who don’t know about it than I thought (I already got similar comment like yours in other places).. so you are not the only Korean one who say that. π Maybe you need to try it someday. hehe Thanks for your comment.
so cute! love your recipes! and videos
Thanks, chen.
Please come back and leave more comments for us. π
Your way of cooking is very delicate and precise. I will try one day…
hi JY,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, please try it someday. π
Hi, I love the dish you give a recipe about. i tried it at home believe me its amazing.
hi Diane Kochilas,
I love to hear that you tried it and liked it. Thank you very much for your comment. π
How long are the cookies good for? Can I make the dough and shape the cookies ahead of time and fry them when I need them? Thanks,
hi Annie,
You can eat them for several days. I didn’t try to freeze the dough before, so can’t tell the result. However, I guess it will work. Thanks
Hi,
Looks delicious! I was wondering, can I make the dough, cut and shape it a day or two ahead and fry it on time?
hi RosyIvory,
Yes, I think you can do that. just keep them in the refrigerator, so it will not go bad..
Hi Aeri,
It’s me again π
I made the cookies. They were very very delicious and I’m definitely going to make them again.
But I had a teeny tiny problem.. Could you help me with it! They were as hard as rocks. I and my family thought we might lose some teeth while eating them. Not to mention the headache I had after eating.. Have you had that before?!! What’s gone wrong?
hi RosyIvory,
I love to hear that you liked this recipe. About your problem.. I wonder if your sugar syrup became too hard later.. so it made the cookie too hard.. or cookie itself was hard.. It is crunch cookies but it shouldn’t be too hard. Let me know.
Hi Aeri,
No, it was the cookies that were hard.
hi RosyIvory,
i can suggest to reduce the temperature and frying time a little… because it seems like a little over cooked.. as i said before, tgis cookies suppose to be crunch and a little hard too… π
Hi Aeri,
Can’t this happen because of something wrong with the dough..? maybe it was softer or tougher than supposed, or it didn’t rest enough. I’m saying this because it didn’t roll easily at all with me; and somewhat it was hard to form the cut pieces of dough.
hi RosyIvory,
As you can see in my video, it shouldn’t be hard to roll or cut.. so yes something must be wrong with your dough. It is hard to tell what was wrong with you since I didn’t see what you did. If you have a chance, please try it again and follow the amount I used for the recipe. I used American measuring tools. thanks
OK. I will try it again soon and I will recommend it to my friends as well
Thanks for the recipe! π
hi RosyIvory,
You are welcome. π
Hi !
I’m from Poland and in Poland we fry cookies in the same shape and we call it faworki π
I’ve seen 맀μκ³Ό in dramas and I was surprised that they have same shape as faworki π Thanks to you now I know what was that π Ill try to make them soon π
hi Sylwia,
wow.. that’s an interesting story to hear. ^^ I just googled to see the images of “faworki” .. wow it does look the same.. hehe cool. thanks ^^
Hey Aeri , I love your website….im not korean but my husband is, so I have learned how to make some of the korean dishes from you π thank you for sharing ..
Crazy thing is that im polish and we have exactly same cookies likes this ones im my country just without the ginger and instead of the syrup we put powdered sugar on top π
hi kasia kim,
I’m very happy to meet you. Yes, I heard of that before.. somebody told me.. you have a similar cookies. hehe interesting.
Please leave comments often. π
Hi,I’m from Romania and I used your maejakgwa and kimbap recipes in a activity at the school……All my teachers loved the cookies. MulΘumesc!(this means thak you in Romanian)
hi Denisa,
I’m excited to hear your successful experience of Korean cooking. Thanks for sharing it with me. π
Hello Aeri,
My family and I take Tae Kwon Do taught locally, and I would like to bring these cookies as treats to the Halloween party. I would need to make them ahead of time, perhaps a day before. I read the earlier comment that they keep for several days. Do you keep them in the fridge or just sealed on the countertop? I’m very excited to try these out, new flavors for the family! Thank you!
Andrea
hi Andrea,
Like other food, the taste will be the best when they are fresh, you can make them the might before you take them to the party… I keep them in the countertop. ^^ Hope people enjoy your food. Thanks ^^
thanks a lot for your learning.in the korean film to name isan i saw different colour such as green and orange and red mae jakgwa can i ask you how can i chang the colour that is your kind of you thanks a lot
hi gita,
You can mix natural food coloring for the dough and fry them. Thanks
Hi! thank you so much for the recipe γ½(*β§Οβ¦)οΎ .. I’m from Algeria and we actually have traditional cookies called “griwech” that kind of look like maejakgwa but more comlicated lol and dipped in honey instead of syrup π . I’ll definitly try these out ^^
Hi Ginger,
It is so amazing how food cultures are similar in different countries. Your cookie sounds delicious too. Thanks ^^
Mine are not crispy! Will they become crispy as sugar sets? Maybe I did not fry long enough? They look the same….
hi T,
I wonder how it turned out after your maejakgwa got cool. It suppose to be crispy after the sugar becomes harder. Thanks.