Injeolmi is rice cake made with sweet rice (glutinous rice). It’s one of the most popular and common Korean rice cakes and it’s made on special occasions and Festival days. The rice cake is chewy and sticky, so traditionally it was given to newly wedded couples to wish that they get along and ‘stick together’ forever. The bride’s mother also makes this rice cake for the groom’s family in the hopes that her daughter will get along with the groom’s family.
When the newly wedded couple share the rice cake, they say, “let’s stick to each other forever, just like this injeolmi” : )
Traditionally it’s made with a mortar and pestle. Soaked sweet rice is steamed and pounded until all the cooked rice grains are mashed. Then it’s coated in roasted soy bean powder or other things like black sesame seed powder, mashed red beans, chopped pine nuts, chestnuts, and jujubes.
It’s most commonly made with soybean powder; yes, I mean roasted soybean powder, or konggaru (kong means beans and garu means powder).
I remember my grandmother used to make injeolmi at home and usually all adult family members (especially male members) helped.
“Ok, let me help you!”
“It’s my turn, take a rest!”
I was always excited to see them making rice cake, and so happy when I ate the freshly made rice cake, coated with lots of delicious soybean powder.These days almost everybody buys or orders injeolmi from a rice cake store rather than making it at home with a mortar and pestle.
I’ve often been told by my readers that they cook together with their children. I think cooking together with your mom is fun and a great experience. Children will keep those good memories in their hearts forever.
I used to make my own injeolmi without pounding, but the taste always lacked something. It wasn’t chewy enough and I didn’t like the taste at all. So a few years ago when I lived in Canada, I did an experiment to make this rice cake by pounding, like I saw my grandmothers in Korea do it. It turned out so delicious! I took my injeolmi to work and shared it with my coworkers, and they said it was awesome.
Instead of sweet rice, I use sweet rice flour, cook it in a microwave oven, and pound the dough with my small mortar and pestle. It works perfectly! What makes this rice cake perfect is that it’s super chewy just like my grandmother’s homemade injeolmi!
Enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients
Sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour), kosher salt, sugar, roasted soybean powder (and mugwort powder for ssuk injeolmi)
Directions
- Place 1 cup of sweet rice flour, ¼ ts kosher salt, 1 tbs sugar, and ¾ cup of water in a microwavable bowl. Mix it well to make rice cake dough.
- Cover it with Saran wrap, and cook it in a microwave oven for 3 minutes.
- Mix the hot dough with a wooden spoon for about 20 seconds. Put the Saran wrap back on and cook 1 more minute in the microwave.
- Transfer the rice cake dough into a mortar and pound it for about 1 minute (pound 50 times). You’ll make bubbles and then hear the bubbles popping out while you pound, which mean the consistency of the rice cake is just right: chewy and elastic.
*tip: Put a little cold water on your hands when you want to touch the dough so that it won’t stick to your fingers and will keep you from burning yourself.
- Spread ½ cup roasted soybean powder on a cutting board and place your pounded rice cake in the powder. Roll it around a bit to cover it with a light dusting of powder.
- Cut into bite size pieces.
- Coat each piece of the rice cake with the roasted soy bean powder and transfer to a serving plate.
Sprinkle with sugar when you serve.
How to make ssuk injeolmi
Same directions as above, and add 1 tbs ssukgaru (mugwort powder) and 1 tbs water to the dough water you mix it.
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Hi Maangchi! I somehow found your website last few days while searching for injeolmi’s recipe and i just made it today. The taste was fantastic! Since I was craving for it since long ago.
But I used cocoa powder mixed with icing sugar (to lessen the bitter taste of cocoa powder) for the coating and it was a good choice!
I have one question to you though… How long can it last if I keep the injeolmi in room temperature? Or should I keep it in refrigerator? Thank youuuu
Freshly made injeolmi will be ok at room temperature up to 7 to 8 hours. I usually keep the leftover injeolmi in the freezer instead of the refrigerator, then thaw it out when I want to eat it. The rice cake will get soft and chewy. You can also reheat it in the microwave.
hi ^^
i, like more than a few other poor souls, accidentally got 찹쌀가루 instead of 멥쌀가루 and i’m a night owl, so i didn’t realize until i was preparing homemade 떡 for 떡국 for the first time last night. thankfully your recommendation to make 인절미 to someone on your page for making 가래떡 saved me from throwing out over a pound of dough. it was late at night and all shops close early here in Austria, so instead of soy bean and mugwort powder, i dusted the sliced cakes with cinnamon-sugar, cocoa-sugar, and green tea powder-sugar. they taste nice! a friend of mine said 인절미 can also be made like a pancake, i hope to see a recipe for that style 인절미 some day. thank you!
You are such a creative cook! Your injeolmi coated with cocoa and green tea powder sounds delicious!
I see.. thank you for the quick reply! I’m going to make some more tomorrow so that my lil sis can share it with her friends :)
I’ll make sure to check out more of your recipes later! Your page is a great great help! 진심으로 감삽니다!
Maangchi, thank’s for the recipe! :) I’ve just made delicious rice cakes. I’ve coated my rice cake in blended, black sesame seeds. It’s super chewy and yummy with sesame flavour! :)
Toasted black sesame seeds powder is very delicious! Great!
I just made this recipe and it turned out amazing! This treat I was missing and now I can make it myself.
Congratulations! yes, when I invented the method, I was almost crying because I was so happy! : )
hello manchi. i have recently been watching your videos and i really want to make this injeolmi. i have failed more than 5 times. im using the normal rice flour it didnt work. and then few times i tried with japanese rice flour but it is not sweet so i use your measurements but added extra sugar. and i dont know why after mixing the ingredients its all so runny? and when i put in microwave it turn out cookd solid and stuck. :( help me !!
is it the flour problem or too much water? im confused
Maangchi ssi,
Awesome recipe as always. I tried it with green tea powder & rolling them on misutgaru instead of kong garu (I was out of kong garu). It was really good even though I forgot to add sugar to the misutgaru.
Nomu kamsamida,
Ima
Hi Maangchi,
Do you think I could use green tea powder instead of mugwort?
Thanks!
yes, green tea sounds great!
Thanks for the reply!
Will let you know how it turnes out!
Hi Maangchi! I bought all the ingredients already but i cannot find soybean powder. Can i use other powder like in the mochi ricecake recipe or use oil like in the normal (plain )ricecake recipe you did? or do you have any suggestions about what i can use instead or can be easily found? Such as not using any powder but another way of processing it?
If you have roasted sesame seeds at home, blend it into powder and use it to coat your rice cake. Or sesame seeds are not available, I would use starch powder.
Thz. so much! i really enjoy your website. I have made it and the taste is great! all my family likes it thanks alot :D
great! I feel like having some injeolmi now! ; )
beautiful rice cake! But the problem is I’m allergic to soybean , so what can I use to replace roasted soybean powder?
How about using black sesame seeds powder? Grind roasted black sesame seeds and mix with some sugar.
Thanks for replying, but is there any other power? Because my twin sister is allergic to sesame.
Dear Maangchi, I made yesterday Injeolmi and we loved it. But, my child say they were to big, this way I cut it in very little cube. They are no one left.
Thank you very much for your recipe. I made photo to show you. Were can I post it?
Have a nice day.
yes, I posted the photos just now. Your injeolmi looks super tasty! https://www.maangchi.com/photo/injeolmi_cubed
Hi maangchi ! I have tried this recipe again and again. And I absolutely love it ! This time round , I replace mugwort powder with green tea powder, needless to say. It was awesome ! Thanks for your recipe!
Great! I should make it soon, too. : )
i really love u and ur recipe.
thank you!!
maangchi, i dont have mortar and pestle…so, can i just use my spoon or my hand??
Use a rice scoop or wooden spoon and stir the sticky dough vigorously, almost mashing and pounding! Because this is a small portion, it will work well.
Hi maangchi! I have finally made this by steaming! This was awesome!
“Hi maangchi! I have finally made this by steaming! This was awesome!” omg, you made injeolmi by steaming! Congratulations!
If you have any tips about steaming rice cake, please leave it on my forum in a post titled: “how to steam injeolmi.” Then I can refer my other readers to it when they ask me.
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
injeolmi, i just tasted it from the korean store here in manila, and really chewy and sticky, some of them stuffing it with red beans, or i want to make a strawberry flavored injeolmi, i want color pink for this stuff… what will it tastes if it is a strawberry flavored? when i put some jell-o strawberry flavor or strawberry flavoring….
Hi Maangchi,
i was wandering if i could make my own sweet rice flour? i am making rice flour now with long grain enriched white rice but i dont know how to make it like the sweet rice!! HELP!!!
thank you and please reply soon!!
–Abby
i think that to achieve what you want you would have to make it with short grain rice. that is the difference between rice flour and sweet (or glutinous) rice flower. rice flower is made with long grain rice, and sweet rice flour is made with short grain rice. because short grain rice has more starch content and that gives the stickiness to the flour.
i was wondering how to make korean chop cal donuts my mom told me it was call that but its like a rice cake donut
Hi! I really really want to make this but I don’t have a pounder/mortar thing… Is there an alternative please??
And for those of you who want to make your own roasted soybean powder, look what I found: http://www.soy-beans.org/soy-powder.html
Hope this helped and please answer!!
Yes, use a rice scoop or wooden spoon and stir the sticky dough vigorously, almost mashing and pounding! Because this is a small portion, it will work well.
THANKS! >:D can’t wait to try it out!
Hi. I wanted to make this rice cake, but I don’t have a microwave, can I steam this?
yes, you can!
Wow. Will have to try this soon. Have always stayed away from making rice cakes except for New Year because of the time an effort that goes in. I love it with soy bean powder. We also eat it with ground sesame seeds and sugar. But my favorite way to eat rice cake is pan fried in a little bit of oil sprinkled with salt. My Grandma used to make it this way. Oh no. Now I am getting hungry!
Yesterday I made ssuk injeolmi again! Ahh so delicious! I froze some to roast it. I prefer roasted injeolmi without using oil. Super tasty.
Hi Maangchi,
Thanks for sharing a brilliant recipe again. The traditional method was to steam but this one is so easy. I tried this to give to my girls after school. It was a perfect snack. I didn’t have roasted soybean powder so substituted with multigrain powder (misoo karu) and added more sugar. My husband was surprised at such a quick fix! Have a great day and hope your area was not impacted by the earth quake. JY
I’m glad to hear that misugaru worked well. Thank you for your good wish about the earthquake. I was working on my computer and didn’t even notice it. : )
Awesome looking rice cakes~! 쑥떡 is one of my favorites because it has got a special aroma, and it’s healthy too. Also love the way you made these rice cakes by pounding. I am sure they must taste really good~!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe and always making us sweet^^*
I love ssuktteok too! I will make it soon! : )
Just before New Year, my family pounds sweet rice into mochi just like your grandmother did with our usu/motar and kine/pestle. But this! You make it seem so easy that I’ll be trying it out soon! I have a sweetened version of it, but your recipe looks much neater to do. I usually have cornstarch all over the kitchen w/the other! As for left-over (plain) mochi, my family likes it when I broil it in the toaster oven. Make sure to coat the pan’s surface w/oil or else there’s gonna be trouble. It tastes ‘nutty’ and is very crunchy on the outside … yummy~! Thanks for sharing … :D
Let me know how yours turns out!
Hello Maangchi, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the super delicious, authentic recipes in English. You’re amazing!
It sounds like you made it! Great!!
Hi maangchi,
We have this as well in Malaysia. But instead of sesame seeds powder, we use roasted peanut powder and sugar.
I am so excited to try the korean version as well :)
roasted peanut powder sounds great!
Maangchiii!!!!!!
aaaaa, I miss u sooo much!!
I went to borneo Island for 5 month and I can’t acces your site…
very very busy!
but now I can see tour site and see many new dish!
aaa
but..
I don’t have microwave here maangchi…
can I steam the dough?
or shall I do something?
umm
ah… You were stuck in Borneo for 5 months! Time to cook Korean food now! Yes, you can steam it. I don’t know how long it will take exactly though. Steam it until the dough looks translucent.
of course~!
time to cook !
aaah, I’ll made this food…
I’ll stick off my friends’s lips off
so they won’t comment to my food anymore…
ahaha,
if they still can open their lips, I’ll make them a songpyeon filling…
:))
Link below are pictures from my injeolmi this morning. Thank you Maangchi for bringing a childhood favorite into a single serving size makeable in about 15 minutes. A miracle!
http://golfism.org/2011/08/18/injeolmi-a-kind-of-manna-from-childhood/
wow, you made it!
I love your description about this rice cake on your blog, “Traditionally made from steamed rice which is pounded into an elastic paste with a forty pound hammer, shaped and cut unto lady finger sized pieces and rolled in toasted soybean powder”
How did you know I was waiting for this recipe Maangchi? Just this past weekend I was salivating for this (I used to buy it in an Asian market long ago). Made it for dinner tonight, Wednesday, 8/17/11. Only made the Roasted Soybean Powder (may try using a batch of freshly grown Mugwort from my garden soon).
The shapes are not perfect but all that matters of your recipe is that it’s SCRUMPTIOUS! DELICIOUS! AND IT ONLY TAKES MINUTES! Thank you for another tasty recipe of which I will make often just like your Kimchi and Mandu and Chopjae (yep, these are my regular Korean staples because of you). :) August 17, 2011
I posted your photo on FB this morning! http://www.facebook.com/maangchi
this looks so good!! love rice cake ^_^
maangchi, do you know how to make Hangwa? I saw it on korean show Family outing and it looks delicious as a snack
Really nice! My wife and girls would love this.
But I am going to be away for awhile.
What power level did you use on your microwave? In Watts?
Cook at HI power, Reinier.
Hi Maangchi, would steaming be a good alternative to the microwave? Thanks for the recipe =)
Anybody have a tip for cooking this old school w/out a microwave? Thanks!
Wow, how great that you can make this with a microwave! Looks easy and delicious.
Hey hey Maangchi!
I’ve been thinking for several weeks about making these, so it’s perfect timing, yay! I’ll do these tomorrow.
Once they are done, how and how long can I store them?
Thanks, byebyyye ;D
I would keep freshly made rice cake in the freezer for later use. Rice cake gets hard after several hours at room temperature. If it gets hard, roast or grill it.
Nice one! I used to buy mochi from asian store, this is about the same right? Now i can make myself! Wooohoo
Reinier, I feel you are going to make it right away, or in a few days. : ) I’m sure it will look gorgeous and tasty.