Korean desserts provide a mouth-watering combination of flavours and textures, with a wide variety of tteok (rice cake), the famous bingsu (shaved ice dish), and unique biscuits. With every mouthful, you can almost hear the dalgona candy sellers chatting with the delighted children, the bakers churning out kkwabaegi (twisted doughnuts), and the morning revellers eating hotteok (Korean sweet pancakes). A culinary bucket list item for any gourmet or somebody with an insatiable sweet appetite should include sampling a variety of Korean desserts.
Whether you spotted your favourite K-drama star feasting on the delicious red bean mochi or a foodie looking to explore new dishes, here’s a quick guide to Korean desserts.
1. Songpyeon
Like dumplings, these small-sized Korean desserts are shaped like half moons and filled with red bean paste, honey, chestnuts, and sesame seeds. The dough is created from rice flour and is coloured with a rainbow of hues. During the Korean harvest festival of Chuseok, also known as 'Autumn Eve', songpyeon is a traditional dish presented to guests. The flavour is a delightful combination of sweet, nutty, and chewy notes, enhanced by a slight hint of pine tree aroma imparted by boiling the rice cakes in fresh pine needles. If you like chewy pastries like mochi, you will love songpyeon, one of the most famous Korean desserts!
2. Patbingsu
During the summer, Bingsu is a must-have Korean dessert. A big scoop of shaved ice, topped with sweet red beans and condensed milk, is the dessert dish. Another reason it's so popular is because everyone can put their spin on it by playing around with different toppings. Everything from green tea to ice cream, jelly, and flavorful syrups to freshly cut fruits and morning cereal is available. With sweetened red beans as toppings, patbingsu is one of the most beloved variants of this Korean shaved ice dish.
3. Dasik
Delicately decorated cookies, these Korean desserts are almost too pretty to eat! Dasik are shaped, lettered, and decorated by pressing them into a mould. They are typically produced from rice flour or soybean flour and are available in a variety of natural flavours and colours. In most cases, the hues correspond to the tastes. Green matcha dasik, black sesame seeds, etc., are only a few examples. Light and not too sweet, they go well with tea and the velvety texture just melts in your mouth! Ancestral rites, festivals, and other events all included heaps of dasik biscuits, which had their origins in the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910). Acorns were used to calm a cough, and sesame was used to treat food sickness, among other flavours that worked as medicine. Imagine a dessert that takes care of your taste buds and your sore throat!
4. Red bean mochi
Chapssaltteok, also known as red bean mochi, is a sticky rice cake that resembles the Japanese treat mochi. Students taking the university admission exam typically receive the famous snack as a way to break up the monotony of preparing for the test. The traditional filling for chapssaltteok is either fruit or red bean paste. This sweet treat is so dense and chewy that it will fill you up for hours.
Yakgwa
A yakgwa is a cookie-shaped pastry with a honey flavour. Chopped pine nuts serve as a garnish for deep-fried yakgwa that have been sliced into the form of diamonds or flowers. Dipped in a syrup made of honey and ginger, the biscuits acquire their distinctive flavours, and in traditional Korean tea establishments, yakgwa is served as a dessert.
Injeolmi binsgu
Toasted soybean powder, a kind of bean powder, is added to bingsu or shaved ice dessert to make injeolmi bingsu. If you've ever had mochi, you've basically experienced the texture of injeolmi. The famous Korean shaved ice dessert called pat bingsu is a close cousin of this one, and is topped with sweetened red beans, fresh fruits, and condensed milk. Injeolmi however is a bit different. While patbingsu uses shaved water ice, injeolmi uses milk ice shavings. This milk-based treat is essentially milk-shaved ice with toasted soybean powder which mixes with the melting bingsu to give it chewy texture.