Sweetness of Korean Baked Goods

Cafe Society
1

I often visit a Korean bakery when I go to Atlanta, and all of their items taste really different than what I’m used to, sweetness-wise. A lot of the ingredients lists are very simple: sugar, butter, flour, etc. so there does not seem to be additives affecting the flavor (unless they are just leaving them off).

Do they use a different kind of sugar in their baking? Or is there something else that they do differently? I’m not the only one that’s noticed the difference, my friends say they notice it too, but we have a hard time articulating just what it is.

2

I’ve never had Korean sweets, but by different do you mean sweeter or less sweet? Or equally sweet but with a different quality that you can’t really name?

3

I would say equally leaning toward more sweet, but definitely a different quality that I can’t name.

A lot of them seem to just be different variations of cream filled buns. Do you think it’s just a greater amount of sugar than I normally expect to find in that sort of thing?

I’m making a trip to the city this weekend, so I’ll have to do some (delicious) research. My favorite is the shu cream, which is apparently Japanese for cream puff that I guess the Koreans have adopted, but the recipe for them doesn’t seem too weird.

4

Sorry to double post, but upon reflection and a lot of googling, I think it may be the prominent flavor of milk I’m noticing. All the recipes for the buns and bread etc. seem to use a lot of it. I don’t really consume a lot of dairy, so maybe the milk/sugar combo was throwing me off.

5

FWIW I lived in Korea for three years and was never able to appreciate most of the baked goods I encountered there. I just gave up after awhile no matter how good they actually looked.

6

Japanese baked goods are the same way. I’d describe it as more “subtle” than American baked goods.

I’d imagine the flavor differences is due to the difference in the flour-sugar-butter-dairy ratio.

Here’s a basic American yellow cake recipe:

Ingredients:

* 2 cups cake flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 cup sugar
* 3 large eggs, room temperature
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 3/4 cup milk

Compare it to a Japanese cake recipe:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp milk

3 eggs

1 1/2 Tbsp butter

7

I’m not sure if this might be it since it’s been a while since I’ve been to a Korean bakery, but do you think it might be the use of milk powder instead of milk? I’ve noticed the substitution in Taiwanese and Japanese baked goods, but I don’t really recall whether it was the same for the Korean pastries I’ve tried.