Songpyeon is a Korean traditional rice cake to eat on Chuseok, which is celebration of the year’s good harvest. Traditionally it’s made with the rice of the first harvest of the year. Chuseok is August 15 by the lunar calendar, which is usually in the middle of September by the solar calendar. This year it’s September 14th.
Ingredients:
Frozen rice flour, salt, water, sesame seeds, sesame oil, dried and skinned mung beans, brown sugar, white sugar, pine needles, mugwort powder (ssook garu in Korean), strawberry Jell-o powder.
Make the dough:
- Prepare a package of rice powder (2 lbs) usually sold frozen at a Korean grocery store. Just before using it, you must thaw it until the powder is at room temperature.
- Put rice powder through a sifter to make the powder fine.Tip: If your rice powder is very fine, you can skip sifting. If your rice powder is coarse, you may have to grind it with a food processor or coffee grinder before sifting.
- Prepare 3 stainless bowls and put 1 cup of finely sifted rice powder into the each bowl. (Bowl A, B, and C)
- Boil 2 cups of water for your rice dough.
- Bowl A (white songpyeon): add a pinch of salt and 3 tbs of boiling water and mix it with a wooden spoon. (it’ll be too hot if you use your hands at first) Knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
- Bowl B (pink songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, a pinch of strawberry Jell-o powder, and 3 tbs of boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
- Bowl C (green songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, 1 ts of ssookgaru (mugwort power) and 3.5 tbs boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.Tip: You will need to add 3.5 tbs of water because of the 1 ts of ssookgaru.
Make the filling:
Roasted sesame seeds powder filling:
- Grind ¼ cup of roasted sesame seeds using a coffee grinder for 15-20 seconds.
- Transfer the ground sesame powder into a small bowl and mix it with ¼ cup of brown sugar and a pinch of salt.Tip: if you grind too long, the powder will become sticky from the oil in the seeds.
Mung bean powder filling:
- Wash and drain ¼ cup of dried and skinned mung beans and put them in a pot with a thick bottom.
- Add ¼ cup of water and a pinch of salt to the pot and simmer it for 30 minutes.Tip: Be sure not to burn it – simmer over the lowest heat.
- Open the pot and use your wooden spoon to crush the beans into fine powder.Tip: if you make more than ¼ cup of mung bean powder, you may have to use your grinder or food processor to grind it finely.
- Transfer the crushed mung bean powder into a small bowl or container and wait until it cools down.
- Add ¼ cup of white sugar and mix it. That’s it!
Let’s make songpyeon now!
- Break off a piece of rice dough about 1 inch in diameter and roll it between your palms to make a rice ball. Then press your thumb in the center of the ball to make it shaped like a cup.
- Fill the cup with either sesame filling or mung bean filling using a small spoon, and seal it using your thumb and index fingers.
- Place all the raw rice cakes (songpyeon) on a plate.
- Wash your pine needles thoroughly with a little dish soap. Towel dry them.
- Put some water (4 cups) into a steamer and boil it. When it starts boiling, place a damp cotton cloth on the bottom of the steamer tray.
- Make a bed of pine needles on the wet cloth and put the raw songpyeon on top. Put more pine needles on top of the songpyeon, too.Tip: Pine needles stop the songpyeon from sticking together and give them a good flavor.
- Steam it for 25 minutes over medium high heat.
- Prepare some cold water in a large bowl, and drop in a little sesame oil.
- Dump your steamed songpyeon into to the cold water and quickly remove pine needles. Take them out, put them on a plate to serve.
Enjoy your songpyeon and happy Chuseok!
Ah I went to my Korean grocery shop last week in C.London, and I bought this platter of different ddeok! It was delicious and they had these cute songpyeon which were slightly bigger than marbles and they were coloured pink, yellow and green on one side and white on the other!^^
Now I have some idea of the texture when I try to make it ^^
HI Maangchi,
thank you for all the hard work you have put in so that we can have korean food. I made the songpyeon using glutinous rice flour (the only short grain rice flour I can find here) and it turned out great. We were eating it as fast as we could make it. My mother-in-law loved it too. After cooling it didn’t turn hard either! thanks again!
oh, yeah? Glutinous rice flour works for this recipe? hmm, thank you for letting me know about it.
Hi there! I just want to ask is this the same as Manna Tteokjib? I would like to make it but I can’t find a recipe. Can you help me? Thanks ^^
Foods from Korea , Japan and Vietnam are so much better than food over here (north America) T.T. Is there a Korean version of Vietnamese Pho that you know Maangchi?I would love to learn how to cook it.
So, the cotton cloth you use to steam the rice cake, can I just use a clean kitchen towel?
What a great video. I appreciate the time you two took to make and post this video. I plan on making songpyun this weekend! Thanks!
hi im mira from athens greece, im glad that i found your site, i enjoying your cooking demo, and trying to cook every recipe that you making. anyway more power to your cooking site,. if you dont mind send me of your recipe in my email (myramanifor_2007@yahoo.com),thank you…
You are from Athens, Greece! I’m very happy to be found by you! : ) Welcome to my website.
i made them, but they turned out tough ;__; i don’t know why. Is it because i steamed them in a rice cooker?
Maybe the dough was too hard? I don’t know the answer.
I made another batch that turned out better! =D I had been letting them steam for too long. Probably because my rice cooker’s steamer is smaller than the one you used. I tried it for 15 minutes instead of 25 and they turned out perfect! Well perfect as far as texture goes, haha. I’ve never had them before so i don’t know how they should taste. thanks so much for sharing the recipe! ^ㅂ^
oh, you solved the problem by yourself! Practice makes perfect! : ) Thank you for your update!
i usually have two types of rice flour plain and glutinous should i be using glutinous for this recipe?
oh, plain rice flour (short-grain rice) is used for songpyeon rice cake. It’s sold frozen at a Korean grocery store.
Hi there! I’m a chef working in the Napa Valley who happens to be Korean American so I am thrilled to see this awesome site. I love your simple approach cooking Korean food. It’s a cuisine that is so satisfying and exciting to eat…of course I think it is the best! Have you ever made homeade hoddeukk?? I’ve only made the kind from the box (it’s not bad) but i want to make one from scratch!
Thank you very much for your nice message and request!
hoddeukk recipe will be posted in the future.
wow
healthy food
it’s food so good I hope I cook that
I will try
…………
thank you very much so much
hey Skilled cook
I hope for you Success always ^^
I’m from Thailand originally, but I live in Switzerland. I just got back from Korea last week. I was there for 3 weeks. In Seoul I got to eat Songpyeon every day – it was so good! Thank you for showing us how it’s made. Now I’ll try to make some at home. Unfortunately, the Korean ingredients are so hard to find here where I live. By the way, you’re a very beautiful woman and I think you’re also an excellent cook. Yesterday we had a party at my place. I invited 10 friends and I made Sundooboo jiggae, Japchae, Kimchi, Panjeon, etc … for them. My friends had never had Korean food before – but they loved it. Thank you ever so much for all your recipes – all the best from Switzerland!
Thank you very much for letting me know about your successful Korean cooking. You must be good at cooking!
hi maangchi, I’m sofia, I’m from chile and now i’m your fan! xD
well, I found you for the recipe for kimchi , but I saw most recipes yours, and i love it!
I want you come to chile and teach me! jeejje
well, nice to meet you
bye
Hi Maangchi ! I was wondering is brown sugar important in the recipe? Can it be replaced with white sugar?
Hi, I am waiting for your posted recipes of mujigae ddeok and baekseolgi too. My kids & I LOVE them. Please email me when you have them – thank you very much!
Hi Maangchi – I’ve just bought some ready made songpyeon from a Korean supermarket (I’m really lucky to live near the Korean community in South London,) and wondered whether they would still need steaming or are they ready to eat? The texture seems very firm.
Love your videos by the way. They’ve really got me excited about Korean food and I’ve made lots of your recipes. Hwedupbap is my favourite! Just tried doraji-saengchae for the first time – it’s fantastic. There’s so much I haven’t tasted yet.
You must get your own TV show!
Yes, it sounds like the songpyeon needs steaming or reheating with microwave oven. Thank you!
Hi,
Maangchi
I Want To Ask That~~
Do Mugwort Only Is Added For Colour Or
It Have Any Uniue Flavour
Thank You
It has its own unique herbal flavor. I use this powder for color and flavor. You could use roasted green bean powder or green tea powder, too.
Hi maangchi. I am verry glad when find your site. I was try to cooc your cooking lesson from your video….and it’s so delicious. I was make Kimchi, khimchi jigae, and soon do fu jigae….thanks a lot for all
Wonderful wonderful! If you can make kimchi, you can make so many different kinds of Korean dishes with it. Thank you for your update!
Gloria,
yes, the rice cake you mention is mujigae ddeok (rainbow ddeok) and baekseolgi (white ddeok: sometimes some black beans are used). Yes, I will post the recipes someday. thank you!
Kare,
Just skip pine needles if they are not available around you.
Hi, let me first off say that I love this website! and your cooking, I’m learning alot…but I have one question, is there anyway I can substitute the pine needles for something else?
I love your website and recipes. My family just moved to Japan, and they only have mochi style rice cakes. I miss dduk (especially the rainbow one and the white one with black bean). Do you know how to make those types of dduk? OH…and thanks so much for the kimchi recipe!! It doesn’t taste the same here.
KoreanLover,
Thank you very much! Good luck with your presentation for Social Study class!
WOW!!!!! I needed to find out how to make this for Social Studies by tomorrow! You are awesome. By the way, cute hanboks! Where did you get them? I am from Korea and this stuff is so good! How did you become so successful? Thank you!^^
Oh, I never thought of that. ^^ Thank you very much, I will try using that. ^_^ I appreciate the help!
Joongie Love,
How about using dried raisins?
Hi, I have been watching your cooking videos at youtube, and I think you are an excellent cook! You make it a lot easier to make these dishes, and they look so yummy. I have been wanting to try songpyeon for a while now, and I would love to make them on my own to see what they taste like but I don’t have any of the proper fillings. Is there any other sweet filling that I could use other than sesame seed, and bean paste? Thank you!
Violet
Yes, you can make songpyeon without pine needles.
“frozen rice powder is made with rice soaked in water and ground.”
So if you want, soak some short grain rice in water for about 12 hours, drain it, and grind it finely.
I have never used dried rice powder to make songpyeon, so I can’t give you clear answer.
Thank you!
Hi Maangchi, thanks for your recipes. I am from Singapore. Lately, I have this keen in trying out to make Korean food at home. By chance I get tof ind your blog and I find it is great. Especially the videos I can learn from your demonstration too. It is great. Thanks so much. There is one question I would like to ask you. I wanted to try out making songpyeon at home. In Singapore I couldn’t find any pine needles. Can I use something else to substitute it or can I omit the pine needles? Beside that, in your recipe you are using frozen rice flour. That day I went to the korean supermarket in Singapore, they do not have frozen rice flour. Can I use the normal rice flour to substitute frozen rice flour? Thanks so much. Hope in future can see more Korean recipes and video demo from your blog. Thanks and wish you all the best.
dantyba,
You could use any green vegetable such as spinach.
Just out of curiosity, since mugwort kind of a hard thing to find down here, are there any substitutions I can use? Also are there other types of traditional colors?
dantyba,
Interesting! I love steamed rice wrapped and steamed in banana leaves.
I think this is the ricecake I had at the Chuseok celebration at my church. I liked it so much because it reminded me of the Vietnamese Bánh dày my grandma used to make. Only difference was we ate it with a savory Vietnamese pate and steamed them on bannana leaves!
I think I’ll give this recipe a spin once I get back home from college! Thanks Maangchi!
uberathlete
frozen rice powder is made with rice soaked in water and ground. The powder is a little wet, so it has to be kept in the freezer, Otherwise, it will go bad easily.
Hi Maangchi. I have a question about frozen rice flour. Is there any reason why the rice flour is frozen? In some asian stores they sell rice flour that isn’t frozen. Do they freeze the rice flour to keep it “fresh”. I find that unfrozen rice flour has a certain off-taste.
To Josh,
Josh, oh, you are living in Busan now! Yes, the songpyun you made with others sounds very delicious! That’s how my grandmother made! Konggaru (roasted soybean powder) and chapsalgaru (sweet rice powder) are sold in a big grocery store in Korea. Ask a sales clerk to find the ingredients next time you go to lotte mart. Happy chuseok!
To http://extraschmaltz.blogspot.com/
Of course I miss the life in country side. I used to follow my grandmother to pick some green chili pepper, corn, and other vegetables. She prepared simple but the most delicious lunch with the fresh vegetables we picked together. I envy you! : )
To Jo,
The rice powder I use in this video is made with short-grain rice. Ask this question in forum in my website. You may get good answer there from others.
Aw adorable outfits ^^
maybe a silly question, but: can I replace that frozen flour with normal fine rice flour? and should I in that case then get non-glutinous rice flour?
get a bit confused by the many variations of something so “simple” as rice flour…
These look so delicious! You two are also adorable in your traditional dresses. Today I’m going to be making red pepper kimchi with cabbage and daikon from my garden, so I’ll be sure to send you pictures! Maangchi, do you ever miss living in the countryside?
I just made these yesterday! I went to a local temple in Busan and made them with a group of foreigners and Koreans. We steamed them in a huge iron pot over a wood fire. It was great! Yummy!
I’m having trouble finding ingredients to make your recipes now that I’m in Korea! Isn’t that funny? I go to the local Lotte Mart and I can’t find kong garu or chapssal garu anywhere! Or any large quantities of black sesame seeds, or pine nuts, or big bunches of spinach. I think I need to start shopping at the shijang.
Happy Chuseok!