You probably know that the recipes on my website are still used in my everyday cooking. This time I’m making hwajeon, disc-shaped pan-cooked rice cake with flowers on top. Whenever I crave some chewy rice cakes, this is my go-to recipe because it’s so easy and fast to make. The rice cakes are sweet and chewy with a subtle flower aroma.
I found some edible purple clover flowers and yellow gladiolus petals at the Union Square Greenmarket here in New York City the other day. The lady selling these packaged edible flowers said they were all well taken care of by her. She said, “you don’t have to wash them before using them.” I immediately felt like making hwajeon!
Many of my readers are newer and don’t even know that I posted a recipe for hwajeon almost a decade ago, so I wanted to share this recipe again and revitalize it. The only difference between my old recipe and this one is that I drizzle honey on top of instead of syrup. By the way, if you don’t want to use honey, you can make your own syrup too. Just put ¼ cup water and ¼ cup white sugar into a sauce pan and cook for a few minutes over medium heat, without stirring. Tilt the pan to mix the sugar and water when it starts bubbling. Then remove from the heat, cool it down, and you can drizzle it over your hwajeon right before you serve it.
In Korea hwajeon were often made with edible azalea flowers which bloom wild in the mountains in springtime. Groups of women used to get together for picnics at that time, and bring a heavy pan and all the ingredients they needed to make hwajeon. They’d pick the azaleas, and use the petals to pan-fry rice cakes right there in the mountains! That kind of spring picnic was called a Hwajeon-nori, on March 3rd by the lunar calendar. I can imagine how much fun that must have been, and what a great mood everyone must have been in! Eating these rice cakes in the beautiful mountains, in the fresh springtime breeze after a long winter and singing, dancing and releasing their stress.
Traditionally, hwajeon was also made with other seasonal edible flowers outside of springtime such as roses, chrysanthemums, cock’s comb, and pomegranate flowers.
No matter the season, these rice cakes put anyone in a good mood!
Enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup glutinous rice flour (sweet rice flour)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup hot boiling water
- Edible flowers
- 2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Honey (or homemade syrup)
Directions
Make the dough and shape the rice cakes
- Combine glutinous rice flour and salt in a bowl.
- Add the hot water a little by little and mix well with a wooden spoon (or rice scoop) until the dough has cooled enough that you can knead it by hand.
- Knead the dough until it’s smooth for about 1 to 2 minutes, then divide it into 10 equal-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
Keep them covered with a piece of plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. - Press each rice cake ball into a disc about 2½ inches (6 to 7 cm) in diameter and put them on a large platter or on the cutting board.
Pan-fry
- Heat up a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the vegetable oil, swirling the skillet to coat the surface. Once it’s heated up, turn the heat down low. The key to beautiful hwajeon is to keep them white by pan-frying over low heat.
- Put the uncooked rice cakes on the skillet and cook them for a few minutes.
- When the bottoms are slightly crispy, turn them over and flatten them out with a spatula. Cook a few more minutes and turn them over.
- Place edible flowers on the top of each rice cake, then flip them over and press them down for 1 second so that the flower sticks to the cake.
- Cook each one and put them on a serving plate.
Serve
- Drizzle some honey on top of the rice cakes.
- Serve with tea as a dessert or snack.
Hwajeon made with snow pea blossoms from my old video
Thank you so much for this recipe! My grandmother made these slightly thicker, cooked them until golden brown and put a little honey on them. She’s not with us to teach me her recipes so I’ve been learning from your site. I want to share the delicious food with my family that she so lovingly made me and you are making it possible!
See full size image
It’s great to hear that this recipe made you think about your grandmother. I can see how much you and your grandmother love each other in the photo. Thank you for sharing it.
I love to make these to snack on! They’re super delicious. I usually make a filling made out of honey, sesame oil and crushed peanuts and fold them over to make them like perogies or dumplings. Its super delicious!
the flower is used in a delicacy called “NASI KERABU’ in malaysia, it provides natural blue color to the rice , wow…it is also in korean dish,,,daebak
No, it’s not the same. Bunga telang called Butterfly Pea. Not Azalea flower
It looks great. Thank you for sharing
I can’t wait to try this! It looks great.
Also, is there a way that I could prepare the dough ahead of time? I want to take this to my friend’s house for our Korean cooking party, but I don’t want to take up too much time in her kitchen.. Hahaha
oh you can prepare the dough before going to your friend’s house. The dough will be ok up to a few hours but keep it in a plastic bag so that it won’t dry out. Happy cooking!
What kind of syrup do you put on these? Just maple syrup?
Yes, you can use maple syrup or honey. Check out the step 6 where I wrote how to make syrup. Make syrup:
“Place ¼ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of water in a small pot. Simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, then remove from the heat.”
Dear Maangchi,
I’m trying to make this recipe to offer as a dessert to my guests for Christmas. I’ve used glutinous rice flour in the past but I can’t find it anywhere in this country (they don’t have sweet rice flour either). The only thing I was able to find is normal rice flour in an organic store (we don’t have any Asian stores here). Can I use normal rice flour for this recipe? If yes, do I need to change the proportions of water?
Thanks in advance.
Laura
Try in a Vietnamese shop, that’s where I bought my flour (in Switzerland)….If you live close to a medium big city it should be possible to find it.
dear maangchi
i tried make it last time..but it didnt turn out good.. i dont know whats wrong..i’m followed your recipe one by one..i’m even watched your video while making it..it looked greasy and undercooked … but I just use a little oil, very little. I fried long enough. in your video it look so easy and simple. it seems you dont need a long time to fry it. i really have no idea whats wrong with it?
nb: i use glutinous rice flour (and sorry, my english is bad)
hi Maangchi is the sweet rice flour same as the sweet rice flour we use for Kimchi??
yes they are the same. Sweet rice flour is also called glutinous rice flour.
we need to make this for a school project. This dish will be served at 1 in the afternoon. So, if we make it one or two days before, will it last?
Sorry about the late reply. “if we make it one or two days before, will it last?” no, you will have to make it right before serving.
Dear Maangchi I need help!! My sweet rice flour was infested with bugs and I had just bought it. Should I try my chances and go buy another package. Only two stores in my city sell it. I don’t know what I would do if the package at the second store would have bugs too. I’m not squeamish, I have rinsed the bugs off my rice and cooked it but there were too many little critters in this flour. I tried to sift it but some of the bugs were too small and they would get through the holes. Please let me know what you think. I really want to make some sweet flower pancakes and kimchee! :Z
“there were too many little critters in this flour”
oh, no, throw it away please! eww! Sweet rice flour is called glutinous rice flour too. Check your local grocery store or any Asian grocery store.
Hi Maangchi,
Can I use sticky rice powder? Its so difficult to get Korean ingredients in India :-( this looks so beautiful and back home, these flowers grow in our backyard.
yes, it’s sticky rice powder (glutinous rice flour).
Hi maangchi!
I’m a big fan of your recipes. My daughter is having world cultures day at her school, and she picked Korea because I am from there! I don’t know much about Korea, because I was adopted into an American home, so I came to you to look for a good recipe. She would make this in the morning, and then bring it to school, and so I was wondering if this would last for about 4 hours? Would it be best to put the syrup on in the morning, or wait till right before?
yes, 4 hours is ok. Sorry about the late reply. How did her presentation go? Drizzle syrup over the rice cake right after making it.