Rice cake is very familiar food for Koreans. Whenever special occasions come, the first thing my mother and grand mother planned was to make rice cake. However these days people are more likely to buy rice cake than make their own. I am going to make gyeongdan, rice cake balls and show you it can be a good gift.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of sweet rice flour (Mochiko powder)
- 1 cup of boiling water
- salt, sugar, brown sugar
- 1 cups of red beans
- 1 ts of cinnamon powder
- black sesame seeds powder
- mugwort powder
- toasted yellow soy bean powder, and 1 or 2 cups of flour
Directions
Make red bean paste
- In a pot, place 1 cup of washed red beans and 4 cups of water and heat it over high heat for 10 minutes.
- Lower the heat to low medium and simmer for 50 minutes.
- Check if the beans are cooked fully. Remove extra water from the beans and crush them with a wooden spoon.
- Add 1 cup of brown sugar, ¼-½ ts of kosher salt, 1 ts of cinnamon powder into the red bean paste and set it aside.
Prepare powders
Prepare 3 bowls where 3 different kinds of powder will be placed for the rice cake balls
- Black sesame seeds:
- Rinse and drain ½ cup of black sesame seeds in running water using a strainer.
- Heat a pan over medium heat and pour in the sesame seeds.
- Cook the sesame seeds by stirring with a wooden spoon.
- The sesame seeds will pop, then lower the heat and keep stirring until they are crispy. (5- 10 minutes)
- When the sesame seeds cool down, grind them with a coffee grinder.
- Transfer the sesame seeds powder to a bowl and add 2 tbs sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
- Put ½ cup of toasted soybean powder (kong gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it. - Put ½ cup of mugwort powder (ssook gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it
Make rice cake dough
- In a bowl, place 2 cups of sweet rice powder, 2 tbs of sugar, ½ ts of kosher salt.
- Pour 1 cup of hot boiling water little by little while you are mixing it with a spoon
- Mix the dough by hand.
*tips: if you feel the dough is too wet, add some plain flour - Put the rice cake dough into a plastic bag and set it aside
Let’s make rice cake!
- In a big pot, place a lot of water and boil it
- Take the rice cake dough out from the plastic bag and place it on the cutting board.
Tip: To protect the dough from being stuck to the board, sprinkle some plain flour before placing the rich cake dough. - Divide the dough into 2 and roll each one to make cylinder shape and cut it into 18-20 pieces.
- Roll each piece of rice dough with your hands and make a hole in the middle of the ball with your thumb. Then turn the ball into a cup.
- Put the bean paste into the middle.
- Close it tightly and place it on a plate.
Tip: While you are making rice balls, the rest of dough may get dried, so cover them with wet cloth or paper towel. - Carefully put all the rice cake balls into boiling water. When the rice cake balls are cooked, they float. It will take about 3 -5 minutes until they float.
- Prepare lots of cold water in a big bowl.
- Put the cooked rice balls into cold water and drain them.
- Roll the cooked rice balls in the 3 different colors of powder and transfer them to a plate.
- Enjoy it!
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
I was wondering if I could put the brown sugar in while the red beans are cooking in the pot because I have the block version of brown sugar .. not the powder version LOL
Would it be the same ?
kelly,
let me know how your rice cake turns out! 16 year old! old enough to cook. : )
Hey!
I’m so exited to try this! Being 16 and from an Indian family I’ve never really cooked something like this. It’ll be a great experience. ^_^
Amy,
You like cooking! At least you are interested in learning some korean cooking. Thank you for your interest in my recipes.
xxforgetangelxx,
oh, I’m very sorry about late reply. I read your questions a while ago, but forgot to answer it and found today.
Glutinous flour is sweet rice flour!
I hope you read my comment.
Hi! I am a Korean American girl who is clueless about Korean recipes. I barely know how to make kimchi jigae and ddukgook. That’s about it. Anyway, I ate a really good sweet bean soup and my friend’s house and found this recipe. i’m trying it out as I type. Thanks so much!
언니! your gyung dan looks great! i’ve been searching all over the internet to find a good recipe for korean sweet rice cakes and yours really catched my attention…it looks tasty but as you may not know im from the philippines and i’m not sure if i can find these ingredients…is there any alternative for sweet rice flour? can i jnot use plain rice flour or just glutinous rice flour?
i really want to try ur recipe…
감사합니다 언니!
hi,Anonymous,
Sure, I am willing to become your older sister! : ) Thanks,
Hi, I was just watching your video on youtube and I can’t but wish that I could try these.. they look amazing!
Can you be my older sister? Just kidding :) Thanks for the recipe!
Hi,Anonymous,
Sure, I will think about making more sweet stuff. Thank you for your interest in my recipes.
I love this recipe~!
could you make more videos on making sweet stuff such as desserts?
well anyways.. love the gyung dan~!
It’s called “dduk”.
There are many kinds dduk(rice cake) and many different kinds of ingredients are used for it.
One main ingredient is “rice flour or sweet rice flour”
If you make dduk using beans, it’s called bean rice cake called “
yes, someday I will make more rice cake video for those who want to learn how to make it.
Thank you for taking a photo of the rice cake to show me and others.
Watching your videos made me hungry for Korean food, so I went to the store and bought things to make the potato side dishes and kimchi. Everything turned out great!!! Thanks a bunch. Do you know how to make this kind of rice cake by chance?
http://cdn.thingsasian.com/content/3800/12/images/dokartcle_feat.jpg
I discovered these at the store near my house and I want to know how to make them but I don’t even know what they’re called.
Hi,audrey,
Thank you for visiting my blog.
I just found your website..I’ve always wondered how to make delicious rice cakes.. thank you for posting your videos and recipes! I will add your blog to my blogroll :)
cassiopiea,
Thank you for your interest in my recipes.
Oh hello! Nice to meet you!!
First time visiting here!
I am really happy i found this blog!!
Maangchi you got a cool and useful blog!
After i watched your video i know i can learn lot from you!I enjoy cooking!! especially korean cuisine!! XD
I love to eat gyung dan! I once eat it in a Korea store and the taste was so good!! I just can’t forgot the taste!!
But the thing is i live in Malaysia and couldn’t find any rice cake here! I mean thats because i live in the other state and hardly i can get to buy oversea stuff.
I don’t think anything else can replace it other than gyung dan right?
TQ!
anne.h,
Oh, you like rice cake? : )
I should say from this moment “some Americans like rice cake!”
The leftover gyungdan should be kept in the freezer. When you feel like eating it, reheat it using microwave oven.
When very fresh rice cake is kept in the freezer, you don’t even have to reheat it. Just thaw it at room temperature.
The gyung dan I made for the cooking video was kept in my freezer right after I made it. Next day, I took it out from the freezer and place it at room temperature for hours until it became soft. I gave it to my friend’s daughter.
Gyung dan are delicious! I just made some with soybean powder coating.
Storage: Should I keep the gyung dan in the fridge?
Taste: I’ve had Japanese mochi before, they are very gooey–but I put my gyung dan in the fridge and they were chewy. Should the dough be chewy or gooey? (Both are good, but I am one American who enjoys the “weird” gooey dough!)
http://yakap.org/2008/04/gyeongdan.html
;)
I used double the hot water for the dough because I couldn’t shape it without crumbling. O_O
oh those are awesome!!! i made something very similar to those while i was staying in taiwan two summers ago. taiwanese make it slightly different.. it’s so much fun though!
yours look great!! :)
Anonymous!
Wow, I’m impressed with your passion about making totally new food!
Regarding your question:
“do i need to set the dough aside for a period of time to like “set” or sth? if so, how long? isit okay if i dont put any coating on it :D”
No need to set the dough aside a long time. You make gyungdan right after finishing the dough. If you like to make it later, put the dough in a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator and use it when you are ready (less than 3 hours).
I can’t imagine gyungdan without coating powder. It’s like naked body exposed. : )
hello! I’ve decided to try out ur recipe for the gyung dan. Ive just made the red bean paster and its in the fridge right now. i intend to make the gyung dan tmr morning, which is like a few hours later LOL. but the steps to make the dough and all seems a lil hard.. anything to take note of? do i need to set the dough aside for a period of time to like “set” or sth? if so, how long? isit okay if i dont put any coating on it :D
keikei mama,
oh, thanks a lot.
Actually lots of korean housewives can cook as well as me. : )
I’m happy to hear that I could motivate you to cook. Yes, homemade food is number one.
you are absolutely amazing!!!! I was impressed with all of your cooking skills on all of your previous videos (which I’ve enjoyed watching more than a few times each!!!), but this one takes the cake! most korean people know how to make some of the dishes you’ve demonstrated, but don’t know how to make dduk very often. and also, you make it look so simple and easy! i am really impressed at your cooking skills as well as your teaching skills. you are very good at both. you really inspired me to cook some dishes i was reluctant to do. my mom lives 3 hours away and i miss her food very much. with your videos & recipes, it makes me want to cook more dishes for myself. thank you, maangchi!!!!
Hello anonymous,
Sesame seeds powder and toasted soy bean powder are very delicious, but sage brush powder (ssook gaa ru) has strong herb flavor. I recommend using only sesame and soy bean powder because you are not accoustomed to the strong “ssook” flavor. Let me know how it goes. Good luck! : )
Hi Maangchi, I was wondering what sagebrush powder and soybean powder tastes like since I’m going to make this recipe. I’ve never had those but I have had black sesame seeds before and I’m kinda afraid to try the sagebrush and soybean powder because I might not like it. Can you give me a little insight? Thanks!
Kaira2006
Yes,using food coloring is ok.
However, rolling them in powdered sugar sounds strange for me.
I would rather roll them in potato starch powder than sugar. Don’t forge to fill sweet red bean paste inside the balls.
Hello Maangchi!
This video is so awesome. Thank you for taking the time and putting up your recipes.
For the rice cakes, I was wondering if its okay to put food coloring in the dough? Or possibly rolling the balls in powdered surgar? (would that make it too sweet?)
감사합니다!
James,
You made songpyun rice cake before, so it was a good practice.
I just know it’s gonna be hard to fill and seal these puppies up coz when I made 송편 last year I tried stuffing some of it with jam. That was a mess, heheh. I will try to make 경단 for a friend. I’m sure it will be appreciated. I just hope it turns out OK. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi, Lillian,
yes, problem is that you can’t eat the rice cake for a long time. One day after, it usually gets hard. So I usually keep the rest of rice cake in the freezer after eating some.
Whenever I want to eat, I just thaw it at the room temperature or use the microwave oven.
By the way, follow the recipe in my blog. Use 3/4 cup or 1 cup of hot water instead of 2/3 cup (in the video, I said) when you make rice cake dough for 2 cups of sweet rice powder. ok?
Today I followed my own recipe exactly again to make “daan pot juk”(sweet red bean porridge with rice balls) to use the leftover bean paste from the gyungdan video, but I found out the 2/3 cup of hot water was too less than enough. I am sure I probably I put less than 2 cups of flour. : )
Mmm these look so good. I like to get these things in the store but they’re so expensive and not always fresh! I had a Chinese roommate who would make them with black sesame filling and no coating, and those were good too.
Maybe I will make these for Mother’s Day!
Grace,
Thank you!
This is great, I always wondered how they make these. You make it look easy, Maangchi!
Grace, from Boston, MA