I've gotten a couple questions from different people asking about baking supplies and ingredients available here, so I figured it might be a good idea to do a post on where I find the majority of my baking goods in Korea.
I will admit that I have this weird thing with hoarding baking supplies. My cupboard is full of random different ingredients that I have stocked up on, for future baking experiments. The 4 vegan baking books I have are all from the US, and therefore, sometimes ask for ingredients that are virtually impossible to find in Korea, such as poppy seeds, Earth Balance butter, carob chips, or rosewater, to name a few. I try to bring back some ingredients with me whenever I visit the US, but for a few ingredients, I just have to do without.
You can find the very basic baking supplies at any supermarket, like flour, sugar, and baking soda. But my favorite place to go for anything baking-related is a spot near Dongdaemun called 'Bangsan Market.' This place is so awesome, it might as well be somewhere over the rainbow. It absolutely goes on my top 10 list of favorite places in Seoul.
At first, it might be a bit confusing to find, since it's in the middle of Dongdaemun, which is market-central. But with a simple map and maybe some asking around, you shall find yourself in baker's paradise. It's not exactly a huge market, but I still love it because everything is mashed into such a tiny area. It might seem like chaos, but if you take your time and appreciate the mess of it all, you can find all sorts of goodies, from canned pumpkin puree, to orange extract, to blackstrap molasses. I have even seen a couple different Bob's Red Mill products there, like stone ground whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, and even their pancake mix.
cocao powders, chocolate chips and bricks
Twisties and bows
This place also has everything you need to make your confections gift-worthy, whether it be cupcake carriers, ribbons, colorful twisties, or stencils for confectioner's sugar art.
And ofcourse, you can find every kind of pan/muffin tin/cookie cutter, under the sun.
canned goods, yeast, nuts, flavor extracts
Raw cashews for your whipped cashew cream. They're expensive though...
From left to right: lemon, coffee, banana, and chocolate extracts
colorful sprinkles!
Several other Seoul bloggers have written about this spot, so check them out too!
http://www.seouleats.com/2008/01/bangsan-market.html
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2896596
http://theseoulite.com/?p=1514
http://english.visitseoul.net/visit2007en/aboutseoul/whyseoul/whyseoul.jsp?cid=46&sid=1770
So now onto the directions . There are several different ways to get there, but this is the way I go: Euljiro 4-ga, Line 2 & 5, Exit 4. Walk straight out the stairs and turn right at the next intersection. Keep walking for about 5 minutes, past the towel stores and knitting yarn stores on your right. Turn right when you see a road with a sign overhead that says “방산종 합시장.” Walk for about 50 meters and you will begin to see little stores selling paper muffin liners and packaging boxes on your left. Turn into one of those alleys, and there will be many more baking supplies within the maze.
Happy shopping!