Walnut Cakes (Simplified)Hodugwaja

Cheonan, a city about an hour south of Seoul by train, is famous throughout Korea for hodugwaja — small walnut-shaped pastries filled with red bean paste and a whole walnut half pressed into the batter. Every convenience store and bakery in Cheonan sells them, and boxes of hodugwaja are one of the most common gifts that people bring back from the city the same way other regions have their own specialty foods.

I grew up eating hodugwaja from boxes my grandmother brought from Cheonan when she visited. The pastries were always slightly stale by the time they arrived — a day old, wrapped in wax paper inside a flat rectangular box — but they were still good. The red bean paste inside stayed moist and the walnut on top had a faint toasty quality from the oven.

The authentic version requires a two-sided cast iron mold that imprints the walnut shell pattern and cooks both halves simultaneously. Without the mold you get mini muffins, which taste the same but look different. The recipe tip addresses this honestly: a mini muffin tin produces the same flavor with a different shape.

Red bean paste — anko — is the filling. Smooth sweet red bean paste is closer to what hodugwaja traditionally uses; chunky tsubuan also works. Both are available at Korean and Japanese grocery stores.

The batter is a simple sweet cake batter: flour, sugar, butter, egg, baking powder. It should be thick enough to hold its shape in the mold without spreading. If the batter seems too stiff, add a tablespoon of milk. Eat warm, the same day.