This recipe is a very special one, made for a very special occasion in Korean culture. It’s rice cake called songpyeon, which Koreans make for Chuseok, the Korean harvest moon festival. On that day, Koreans traditionally give thanks for the harvest and make songpyeon with the new rice from that years’ crop.
Songpyeon is a little sweet, chewy, and nutty, with a subtle pine tree flavor from steaming the rice cakes in fresh pine needles.
For this recipe you’ll need ssalgaru: 쌀가루 (aka mepssalgaru: 멥쌀가루, or short grain rice flour), a special kind of rice flour made from finely milled rice, soaked in water for hours. The rice flour is a little wet, so to keep it from spoiling it’s sold frozen in the Korean grocery store. Be careful not to buy chapssalgaru (찹쌀가루) which is also sold in the freezer section at a Korean grocery store. Chapssalgaru is made from sweet rice (aka glutinous rice) and it won’t work for this recipe. If you can’t find ssalgaru you can make your own with my recipe.
I used all natural food colorings to make this songpyeon, including the water from yellow gardenia fruits (chija) to make the yellow dough. I crushed a few gardenia fruits, added a few tablespoons of water and let it sit overnight. By the morning the water had turned a dark orange yellow. If you can’t find gardenia fruits, you can substitute it with orange Jell-O powder. Just mix some powder with water.
You can also do some creative experiments to create your own colors. I often use mugwort powder for green, and you could try strawberries for red. For filling, toasted sesame seeds, fresh beans, pine nuts, and sweet mung bean paste are usually used, but you can try to create your own fillings, too!
I hope you enjoy this recipe, which I first introduced to you nine years ago! I remade the video in HD and rewrote the recipe, just in time for Chuseok this year.
Happy Chuseok, and enjoy some songpyeon!
Ingredients
- 3¼ cup short grain rice flour
(mepssalgaru 멥쌀가루 or ssalgaru 쌀가루), sifted - 1 cup blueberries, washed and drained
- 2 teaspoons yellow water from gardenia fruits
- hot water
- kosher salt
- honey (or sugar)
- ¼ cup fresh beans (cranberry beans or any fresh beans)
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts
- 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, ground
- pine needles, washed and pat-dried with kitchen towel
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Directions
Make the white rice cake dough:
- Combine 1½ cup rice flour, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, and ¼ cup hot water in a bowl and mix it with a spoon until the dough is cool enough to knead by hand.
- Knead for about 1 minute until smooth.
- Roll it into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Set aside.
Make a bit of yellow rice cake dough
- Put a little more than 2 tablespoons rice flour and 1½ teaspoons gardenia fruit water into a small bowl. Mix it with a spoon and then roll it into a ball with your fingers.
- Wrap it in plastic wrap and set aside.
Make purple rice cake dough
- Place 1½ cup rice flour and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt in a bowl. Set aside.
- Heat a thick pan over medium high heat and add blueberries. Press and break the blueberries with a potato masher (or a large wooden spoon) as you cook them, until all the berries are broken. Let it bubble for a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Remove from the heat. Put it into a mesh strainer over a fitted bowl. Press down and stir it with a wooden spoon to strain. You will get around 3/4 cup of hot blueberry liquid.
- Add ¼ cup to the rice flour. Mix it with a wooden spoon until the dough is cool enough to handle by hand.
- Knead the dough for about 1 minute until smooth.
- Roll it into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Set aside.
Make fillings
- Put the beans into a small bowl and mix with 2 teaspoons honey.
- Fold the the pine nuts into a piece of parchment paper on your cutting board. Pound the nuts through the paper or roll them with a rolling pin until they’re crushed. Put them into a small bowl and mix with 1 tablespoon honey.
- Put the sesame powder in a small bowl and mix with 1 tablespoon honey and pinch of salt.
Shape songpyeon
- Take a piece (about 1 ounce) of white or purple dough and roll it into a ball in your hands.
- Work your thumb into the center of the ball to create a small cup out of it. Fill the cup with one of the fillings: beans, sesame seeds, or pine nuts.
- Seal it using your thumb and index finger and shape it into a half moon. You can leave it like that, or for some variation you can roll the half moon into a smooth ball and shape a little ridge on the top.
- Keep rolling and filling until all the dough is finished, about 12 to 14 songpyeon. Leave about 1 ounce of white and purple dough for flower petals.
How to make rice cake flowers
- Take a tiny amount of purple dough, about size of rice grain, and roll it into a ball with your fingers. Press the ball with your thumb and index finger to make a flat petal. Shape it into a petal.
- Gently attach the petal to a white songpyeon. Add four more petals to make a flower.
- Make a pistil with the yellow dough by rolling tiny amount of the dough and putting it in the center of the petals.
- Repeat with the rest of white, purple, and yellow dough.
Steam
- Add 2 inches of water to a large steamer and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat until we’re ready to steam.
- Line the steamer basket with a cotton cloth and fresh pine needles.
- Add all the songpyeon and put another cotton cloth on top of the basket and close the lid. This will stop water from dripping on the songpyeon while its being steamed.
- Turn on the heat to medium-high and steam for 30 minutes, then for 5 minutes at low heat.
- Remove from the heat and uncover. Let them cool for a few minutes, then take them out of the steamer with a spatula and a spoon. Brush each songpyeon with a little bit of toasted sesame oil.
Serve
- Serve them by themselves, or with tea. Keep any leftovers in the freezer when the rice cake is still fresh and soft. When you serve them again thaw them out at room temperature or reheat them in the microwave oven.
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!