6 Must Try Traditional Korean Dessert
1. Songpyeon
Songpyeon is a kind of rice cake fully made with short grain rice cake dough. It is filled with different ingredients such as sweetened sesame seeds, black soybeans, and mung beans. The shape is made by hand and steamed before eating. Korean eat this dessert during the Chuseok to celebrate a bountiful harvest.
2. Yaksik
This is a Korean dessert made of sweet rice. It contains some healthy filling like jujube, chestnuts, and pine nuts. It is seasoned with honey or brown sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, or cinnamon in some cases. The tradition is to eat it on Jeongwol Daeboreum, a Korean holiday that falls on the 15th of January on the lunar calendar.
3. Bukkumi
Bukkumi is a kind of dumping made of rice stuffed with sweet red bean past and toasted ground sesame seeds. It is pan fried in oil lightly for crispy crush along with a soft a chewy texture. It is usually coated with honey and garnished with shredded chestnuts and jujube. They have it flat or round in shape and some without fillings.
4. Dasik
Dasik is tea cookie made from sesame seed or rice flower. There are many kinds of pattern on the cookies depending on the mould used. A plate of dasik usually consist of green, yellow, pink, black, and white colors. The typical ingredients of the dessert include pine pollen, black sesame, chestnuts, and soybean.
5. Yakgwa
This is one of the most famous traditional Korean dessert. Another name for it is gwajul. This dessert is a deep fried, wheat based made with honey, rice wine, sesame oil, and ginger juice. It is offered in an ancestral rite traditionally. But it’s served during Chuseok, marriages, and can be bought at many places including traditional markets, and supermarkets.
6. Sejeonggwa
This is a Korean traditional cinnamon punch, dark reddish brown in color. It is made with dried persimmons and ginger and usually garnished with pine nuts. Sujeonggwa is served cold and as a dessert instead of a drink. It is somewhat similar to sikhye because of its sweet taste but in a dessert version. It is also widely available anywhere and served in canned form.