공갈빵 – Kong kal bbang -- Liar’s Bread

I’m not sure where this comes from, but it has a lot of resemblance to Chinese Hoddeok (중국호떡), the main difference being that this one is baked on a pan in an oven, so it swells up very big.

The name of this bread comes from the word 공갈, which means “blackmail, deceit, treachery.” When you see a pile of these in the bakery, they look impressive, but there is little substance to them.

When I first tried them, I was amazed at how they puffed up into nearly perfect globes. I’ve asked many people how to make them, but they seem to be a trade secret among bakers—no one makes them at home.

Even more amazing is how simple this is—the dough is water, yeast and flour. After letting the dough rise, one takes a small ball of dough, fills it with brown sugar, roasted sesame seeds, and cinnamon, seals the ball, rolls it out into a thin saucer-sized circle, and then bakes it at about 210 degrees C for about 20-25 minutes. They are really good hot!

You should be careful when baking not to let them bake too long. I have some issues with my oven, so by the time they looked done on the outside, they were burnt on the inside. Possibly I need to fiddle with the filling mixture as well.

There is an excellent site in Korean with pictures describing how to make this delicious bread. http://blog.paran.com/monstermong

Here’s the recipe, translated.

Water – 125 grams/ml

Flour – 200 grams (about 375 ml or 1 ½ cups)

Yeast – 1 ½ tsp.

Mix, knead into a nice dough, and let rise. The dough should be just a little sticky.

Filling:

Dark Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, roasted sesame seeds (according to your preference) The recipe also suggests adding some bean powder, but I’m pretty sure most bakers don’t use it, and I would leave it out.)

I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t make a chocolate or some other version of this