There’s nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread wafting out of a bakery early in the morning. Sadly, I must admit that I haven’t been assailed by this lovely scent too many times in South Korea. Thank goodness, however, that the bakeries here do carry a mean French baguette, as well as many other scrumptious European pastry delights.

If you’re a pastry and dessert addict like me, you’ll definitely want to sample the wide and unique selection that Korea has to offer. South Korean pastries, breads and desserts boast ingredients such as custard, cream cheese, pumpkin, sweet potato, and the infamous red bean.

I won’t lie to you: some of these desserts demand an adventurous spirit, and may not be your cup of tea. However, you may find that some South Korean desserts will change your life forever.

Franchise Bakeries

Here’s a quick rundown of the franchise bakeries you’ll find in South Korea. The two most popular Korean bakery franchises are, without a doubt, Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours. These two bakeries sell a few European pastries and baked goods, but carry a much wider selection of Korean pastries, breads and desserts.

Paris Croissant is my absolute favorite bakery franchise in South Korea because it has an amazing, mouth-watering selection of both European and Korean pastries. It can be a bit pricy though, so you might not want to eat there every day, as tempting as that would be.

A slightly less popular bakery franchise is Bang Goom Teo. This is more of a traditional Korean bakery, and it has an impressive selection of Korean breads and pastries.

Bread, bread, bread

One thing you’ll notice when you go to a typical Korean bakery is their staggering selections of breads. If you’re passionate about cream cheese, there are many cream cheese-filled breads to get you going. Some of these include: the mocha cream cheese bread, walnut cream cheese bread, almond cream cheese bread, cream cheese rye bread, and red bean cream cheese bread.  

If you love custard and cream, you might want to try the condensed milk bread, custard-filled bread, melon cream bread, or the chou cream bread.

If you want to sample the more traditional of the Korean dessert ingredients, then you can try out the walnut red bean bread, glutinous rice bread, pumpkin bread, or chestnut bread.

Soboro, or Korean streusel bread, is kind of like a bread cookie. It is a pastry bread that is topped with a hard streusel topping of flour, sugar and butter. It can also be filled with sweet potato, red bean, or even strawberry jam.  

Honey bread and injeolmi toast are also quite popular dessert choices at bakeries and dessert cafes alike. Honey bread is cooked bread that is slathered with butter, honey and caramel. It is topped with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Injeolmi toast is toasted white bread that is stuffed with glutinous rice, and can be topped with honey, ice cream, garlic cheese, and citron. Sounds great, right? If not, that’s okay. Injeolmi toast is more of an acquired taste.

I must also point out the garlic bread sticks and garlic baguettes that they sell at most bakeries here. This is by no means a traditional garlic bread. Korean-style garlic bread is garnished with sugar, so it’s definitely not for everyone. It is also more of an acquired taste.

One cannot live on bread alone

If you’re not a big fan of bread, don’t worry: there are many other desserts that will tickle your fancy. One of the most popular snacks in South Korea is the handmade choco pie, which is very similar to wagon wheels or moon pies found in North America. These are sold primarily at the more traditional Korean bakeries, but can also be bought at grocery stores and convenience stores.

You can also find many different kinds of donuts, such as the glutinous rice donut, chou cream donut, purple sweet potato donut, and the plain twist donut. These donuts are soft, sweet and scrumptious, with no hint of salt or garlic, which is a welcome taste for many tongues.

Patbingsoo has been listed many times as one of the Top Ten Korean foods to try at least once, and this is no lie. It is by far one of the best desserts I have ever tasted in my whole life. But maybe that’s just me.

“It is by far one of the best desserts I have ever tasted in my whole life.”

What is patbingsoo, you might ask? Patbingsoo is basically a Korean shaved-ice dessert that is traditionally served with red beans and sticky rice cakes. There are many delicious and innovative variations of bingsoo such as green tea bingsoo, chocolate bingsoo, mango bingsoo, and many more. You can find this dessert at virtually every cafe, bakery, and dessert café. Sulbing is a very popular traditional Korean dessert café franchise, specializing in injeolmi toast and sulbing, which is very similar to bingsoo, but prepared in a slightly different fashion.  

Last words

This is definitely not an exhaustive list of Korean pastries, breads and desserts. Korean cuisine is famous for innovation and experimentation, which extends to the dessert offerings found in dessert cafes and bakeries alike. You might not like every dessert you try in South Korea, but it will definitely be an adventure your taste buds will never forget.  

—

-Edited by Rafi Feliciano