Korean Ginger Cookies - 매작과 – Maejakgwa - Fried Ribbon cookies

    Here , I am posting a recipe from a country which was in the same continent as mine. This was the first recipe I tried from Korean cuisine . Koreans eat rice in most of their meals similar as south Indians.

 

    Well , I became a die hard fan for the Korean dramas these days. My desire to cook recipes from this cuisine was in my mind for a long time. I came through many of the recipes , though I find this cookie is easy to make .  Will try to post many recipes from this cuisine in future. I say this cookie was shown in the drama Sunkywanan scandal , where the heroine goes to market to buy snacks for her family , they showed this cookies.

  Maejakgwa is a Korean treaditional cookie. It is a variety of hahngwa or Korean traditional confection , consisting of wheat flour , vegetable oil , ginger juice and pine nuts. It is sliced thinly and slit , then flipped over after squeezing one end into the slit . the cookies are then fried in oil , coated with sugar syrup and sprinkled with pine nuts and cinnamon powder.

  Maejakgwa gets its name from its shape , which is similar to a sparrow ( Jak ) in an apricot ( Maehwa) tree .

  The ingredients are simple yet the flavor and taste are superub. This cookie is very crunchy.

Requirements :

For Cookie :

All purpose flour – 2 cup

Salt – ½ tsp

Sugar – 1 Tbs

Ginger grated / juice – 1 Tbs

Water – ½ cup

Oil for frying

For sugar syrup :

Sugar – ½ cup

Water – ½ cup

For topping :

Crushed pinenuts

Cinnamon powder

Method :

 In a large bowl , add the flour , ginger grated , salt , sugar and mix well.

 Add in half cup of water and knead well for about 20 minutes.

 If using food processor , 2 minutes is enough.

Place this cookie dough in a plastic bag and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Take the dough and roll it out with the rolling pin into a 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.

Make three slits in each rectangle.

Push one end of dough through the center slit to make a ribbon shape.

Make all the dough into ribbon shape.

Heat oil in a wok or frying pan , fry the cookies till golden brown.

Place all  fried cookies on absorbent paper to absorb excess oil.

Making of sugar syrup :

In a pan , add the sugar and water together and bring to boil in low heat for 20 minutes.

The syrup must reduced to half or till one string consistency.

Now , place the cookies in a large bowl , add this sugar syrup and toss gently , so the syrup coats on each cookies.

Sprinkle cinnamon powder and chopped pinenuts on top.

Flavorful  ginger cookies is ready to serve.