Dalgona

Ingredients

Sweet

• 4 tbspgranulated sugar
• ¼ tspbicarbonate of soda
• a pinch of salt, optional

Equipment

• a metal ladle
• an oiled metal press or spatula
• cookie cutters
• oiled parchment

Directions

1. Oil the parchment, the press and the cutters before you start anything. Once the sugar is molten you have about ten seconds and no time at all to prepare.
2. Put the sugar into a metal ladle and hold it over a low flame.
3. Stir it slowly with a chopstick as it melts, keeping it moving so that it melts evenly rather than burning at one edge.
4. Melt it only to a light amber. Taken any darker it turns bitter, and dalgona should taste of caramel rather than of burnt sugar.
5. Take the ladle off the heat and immediately stir in the bicarbonate of soda.
6. It will foam up dramatically and turn pale and opaque. Stir just enough to combine it and no more, because over-stirring knocks the air straight back out again.
7. Pour it onto the oiled parchment at once and press it flat with the oiled spatula.
8. Stamp a shape into the centre with a cookie cutter, pressing only partway through rather than all the way.
9. Let it cool and harden completely before lifting it off the paper.
10. It was a postwar sugar-scarcity sweet sold outside schools, where a child who managed to cut the stamped shape out intact won a second one free.

Technique

• Speed is everything after the bicarbonate goes in. Have every tool oiled and within reach.
• A quarter teaspoon of bicarbonate to four tablespoons of sugar is the ratio. More makes it bitter and soapy.
• This is not the whipped dalgona coffee that became briefly famous, which borrowed the name for the colour.

Substitutions

• A small heavy saucepan in place of a ladle, though a ladle heats faster and is easier to pour from.
• Baking parchment on a cold metal tray, which sets it faster.

Variations

• With a pinch of salt, which cuts the sweetness.
• Stamped with elaborate shapes, which is how the street game is played.
• Left unstamped as a plain honeycomb disc.

History

A postwar sugar-scarcity sweet sold outside schools, where children won a second one by cutting out the shape intact.

Frequently asked questions

What is Dalgona?

Dalgona is a street food from South Korea: melted sugar puffed with baking soda, pressed flat and stamped with a shape. A postwar sugar-scarcity sweet sold outside schools, where children won a second one by cutting out the shape intact.

How long does Dalgona take to make?

Dalgona takes 10 min of preparation and 5 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 pieces. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Dalgona?

Yes, within limits. A small heavy saucepan in place of a ladle, though a ladle heats faster and is easier to pour from. Baking parchment on a cold metal tray, which sets it faster.

What is the most important thing to get right in Dalgona?

Stir it slowly with a chopstick as it melts, keeping it moving so that it melts evenly rather than burning at one edge.