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Pan-fried rice cakes with sweet red bean filling

Bukkumi 부꾸미

Today I’m going to show you how to make bukkumi, pan fried rice cakes filled with sweet red beans, or with mung bean paste. These rice cakes are gooey, chewy, and sweet on the inside and crispy on the outside. The texture is just wonderful, both soft and crispy at the same time.

The best thing about these is that they are very quick to make. With a box of glutinous rice flour and a can of sweet red beans, you can make them in 10 minutes! If a Korean grocery store is far away from your home, you can buy these ingredients on Amazon, or you can make your own sweet red bean paste, or use the mung bean paste that I show you in this recipe.

When I lived in Korea, these were a lot harder to make because they didn’t sell glutinous rice flour in a box. You had to bring your soaked and strained chapssal (glutinous rice) to the local mill and have them grind it into flour for you. So it’s a real treat for me to be able to make them so easily these days.

If you like to make bukkumi and save some for later, you can freeze them up to one month. To serve them, reheat in the microwave or in a pan with a bit of oil.

I love the cute name of this dish! Let me know how yours turn out!

Ingredients (4 bukkumi)

For mung bean filling

  • ½ cup dried skinned mung beans, rinsed and soaked for 2 hours
  • a pinch of kosher salt
  • 2-3 tablespoons sugar or honey

For red bean filling

For the rice cake dough

For garnish

  • 1 jujube, the seed removed, rolled and cut into thin slices
  • 8 pumpkin seeds
  • 1 tablespoon honey

For pan frying

Directions

Make sweet mung bean paste (if using)

  1. Strain the beans and put them into a heavy pot. Add ⅓ cup water and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat. Keep an eye on them to see if a lot of bubbles form. If so, open the lid and stir the beans with a wooden spoon. Cover and keep cooking.
    mung beans mung bean paste
  2. Turn down the the heat to very low and simmer for another 5 minutes.
  3. Remove from the heat and mash the beans with a wooden spoon until they form a smooth, soft, shapeable dough. Add the honey and mix well. mung bean paste
  4. You can make 8 to 10 bukkumi with this amount of mung bean paste. Take 2 to 3 tablespoons of the paste and and roll it between the palms of your hands to shape it into a little football. Roll all the paste into footballs and set aside.

Make the dough

  1. Combine the rice flour, kosher salt, and hot water in a mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until it cools down, and knead the dough with your hand for 1 minute until it turns into a lump. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit.
  2. 5 to 10 minutes later, knead it again on the cutting board until it turns smooth, for about 2 minutes. Use some extra rice flour to dust the cutting board so the dough doesn’t stick to it.bukkmi dough (부꾸미 반죽)
  3. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece between your hands, into a ball.bukkumi dough (부꾸미 반죽)
  4. Put each ball onto the cutting board one by one and roll them out to about 5½ inch disks.bukkumi (부꾸미)bukumi-dough (부꾸미 반죽)

Make bukkumi

  1. Heat up a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add about 1 tablespoon cooking oil and 1/2 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil. Swirl the pan to mix the oil evenly.
  2. Put one of the dough disks on the pan and cook for 30 to 40 seconds until the edges start cooking and it looks a little translucent.
  3. Flip it over and add one of the mung bean paste balls to the center of it. If you’re using canned sweet red bean paste, scoop about 2 to 3 tablespoons worth into the center. Pan-fried Rice Cakes with sweet bean filling (Bukkumi: 부꾸미)
  4. Fold the disk over with your spatula to make a half moon. Press the edge slightly and let it cook for 1 minute. Turn it over and cook until both sides are a little crunchy, but not browned.
    Pan-fried Rice Cakes with sweet bean filling (Bukkumi: 부꾸미)
  5. Repeat with the rest of the disks and bean paste.

Serve

Garnish with jujube and pumpkin seeds, and serve as a dessert or snack with coffee or tea.
Pan-fried Rice Cakes with sweet bean filling (Bukkumi: 부꾸미)

Posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2015 at 12:50 pm. Last updated on July 29, 2021.
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13 Comments:

  1. MercyP VA joined 10/21 & has 2 comments
    Posted October 10th, 2021 at 9:24 pm | or create a profile.

    Maangchi,

    I was thinking about what you wrote. How people in Korea used to take “soaked strained chapssal” to be ground. So, soaking was part of the tradition, right? This would reduce the phytic acid (and probably change other things), making the nutrients in the rice more bioavailable. I think rice flour is just ground up rice, right? Then the phytic acid remains, reducing the nutrients available to the body.

    Do you know how long people used to soak the rice grains? Do you know if there was any fermentation of the rice prior to draining and grinding? ‘

    I have been wondering if changing cooking methods and ingredients (convenient flour, instead of soaking first) has reduced nutrients in cooking. In the US, many people got rickets and other diseases when flour was made available in the 1920s. That is why synthetic vitamin B, etc, is added to flour now. But it isn’t the same.

    I just got Koda farms organic glutinous rice at Housework. It’s delicious. I am going to try soaking and grinding (maybe with my hand blender).

    LOVE LOVE your recipes!!!!! I couldn’t remember many names of foods I loved when my Dad (Korean) made them because he passed away many years ago. So I am super happy you decided to make this site. I bought all your books, even the old ones (some real gems in those first books!!)

  2. WishfulsoUl Oslo joined 3/20 & has 17 comments
    Posted April 17th, 2020 at 4:40 pm | or create a profile.

    I really enjoyed this crunchy and chewy snack that made me giggle while making them. It’s very satisfying when you’ve done something that makes you feel like a child again^^_^^


    See full size image

  3. neesfatin joined 8/15 & has 2 comments
    Posted August 1st, 2015 at 2:05 am | or create a profile.

    Hello Maangchi,

    Here I am stalking your blog and dreaming eating the same samgyetang I ate during my previous visit to Korea. I stumble upon your recipe and wondering how here in Malaysia, we have the same dessert as ‘bukkumi’. the method were almost the same glutinous rice flour and hot water and this ingredients combine together…. shredded fresh coconut flesh, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of cooking oil. make a dough. after that you ball it up for bite size, press it using your palm and fry in hot oil. you can eat as it is or.. in the skillet bring water to boil and add sugar. let the sugar water boil down and put in the fried dough… toss until all the surface coated with sugar… yummmm… I hope I can show you a picture…

    P/s: by the way I love those ribbons… cute…

  4. EvilGrin joined 6/15 & has 46 comments
    Posted July 24th, 2015 at 11:17 am | or create a profile.

    bapgongju

    I like them with all kinds of filling. You could try chestnut paste or lotus seed paste too. I was not too thrilled with red bean paste either until i tried one that was made very smooth like the filling of a sesame ball. This is done by straining the bean husks, adding some oil and a little more cooking.

    Some types of custard might even be tasty.

  5. bapgongju joined 7/15 & has 2 comments
    Posted July 21st, 2015 at 6:44 pm | or create a profile.

    As a Korean, I’m ashamed to admit I strongly dislike red bean paste and mung bean paste. My grandmother and dad were always so kind to let me eat the dduk while they ate the filling. So if I was to swap the paste for cooked fruit or even jam, do you think it would work?
    Is there a reason for why you make the half moon after you start cooking these cakes? Wouldn’t it be easier to fold them in half before cooking first?

    Thank You!

  6. xelloss1989 United States joined 1/13 & has 15 comments
    Posted July 21st, 2015 at 6:33 pm | or create a profile.

    thank you for the recipe maangchi! but how about 수수부꾸미? how do i make the dough pinky like that?

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