By Niveditha Kalyanaraman
December 14th, 2023
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Korean food is one of the healthiest cuisines in the world, but one side of the food is still often left out: Korean desserts. It’s a shame because there are Korean desserts for just about every occasion, whether you want something to warm you up through a harsh winter or cool you down in a blisteringly hot summer. Here are 8 Korean desserts you must try.
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Shaped into a similar half-moon shape as dumplings, these bite-sized packages are made with a rice flour dough shell that’s filled with ingredients like red bean paste, honey, chestnut, and sesame. It is traditionally served during the Korean celebration of chuseok.
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Usually made from rice flour or soybean flour, dasik come in a range of natural colors and flavors and are pressed into a mold to imprint shapes, letters, and flower patterns. The colors generally match the flavor. For example, matcha dasik are green, sesame seeds are black, and so on.
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Chapssaltteok is a rice cake made with glutinous rice and is similar to a Japanese dessert called mochi. The popular snack is often given to people taking the university entrance exam to sweeten up what is otherwise a long string of days filled with studying.
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The pancake-looking dessert is filled with honey, cinnamon, and nuts. Popular in the winter, hotteok has a crispy outside and chewy inside that’s slightly crunchy and syrupy.
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Fruit is the key element in gotgamssam. The treat is made with a walnut that’s wrapped in a dried persimmon. Some of the sweeter versions are smothered in honey. The whole thing is thinly sliced and served alongside tea.
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Easily one of the most popular Korean desserts outside of Korea, bingsu, or shaved iced, is the crowning glory of desserts to rescue you from a scorching summer day. It’s made up of a large portion of shaved ice that’s topped with sweetened condensed milk, syrup, and classic toppings like red bean, mango, or green tea.
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Yaksik is a rice cake made from glutinous rice. Yaksik is sweetened with honey and decorated with pine nuts, chestnuts, and dried fruit, like raisins. The texture of yaksik is sticky, and it has a slightly salty flavor from the nuts and sesame oil.
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Hwajeon are pan fried rice cakes adorned with edible flowers. These pretty treats are often decorated with azaleas in Korea, and are sweetened with honey. This dessert is most commonly prepared in the spring time, when flowers bloom.
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