Yanggaeng is one of my favorite Korean snacks. I love the texture of the sweet, soft, smooth, and blended silky beans and I much prefer this over any kind of chocolate. When I was young, and going on a school picnic, my mom used to give me a little money to buy a snack or something to eat. “Buy some of your favorite snack with this money,” she said. Yanggaeng was always one of the things that I bought.
As you see in the video, I added chestnuts. They kind of look like yellow buttons. Think of how delighted you’ll be to dig into the jelly and find a chestnut.
Show off your homemade yanggaeng to your friends and family:
“Would you be interested in tasting my Yanggaeng?”
“What’s Yanggaeng?”
“Oh, Yanggaeng is …” : )
Enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup azuki beans
- water
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 pkg of gelatin (7 grams: 2 teaspoons plus ¼ teaspoon gelatin powder)
- canned chestnuts (optional)
Directions
- Rinse the beans in a strainer under running water. Strain and put them into a heavy pot. Add 6 cups water and boil for 30 minutes over medium high heat
- Remove from the heat and let sit for another 30 minutes so that the hot water in the pot can cook the beans.
- Bring to a boil again, over medium heat, and cook for 1 hour. The beans will soften enough so that they can be easily mashed.
- Remove from the heat and mash the beans with a wooden spoon in the pot.
- Add 2-3 cups cold water to the beans and strain them over a bowl. Press them down with a wooden spoon and mash them in the strainer, so the beans go through and the skins are left behind.
- Squeeze the skins and remove.
- Put the strainer, lined with cotton cloth, over the pot. Pour the bean and water mixture through the cotton cloth and let it sit for a few minutes to sieve.
- A few minutes later, lift out the cotton cloth and squeeze it tightly so the water goes out and the beans looks like a pressed ball.
- Put the bean ball into the pot and add sugar, kosher salt, and vanilla. Heat the pot over medium high heat.
- Stir the bean paste with the wooden spoon for about 3-5 minutes until the sugar dissolves thoroughly.
- Put the gelatin powder into a small bowl and add ¼ cup cold water. Mix well with a spoon. Add ½ cup hot water and mix well to dissolve the gelatin nicely.
- Add the gelatin solution to the bean paste in the pot. Stir well. Pour it into cookie molds, paper baking mini loaf pans, or small cups. I used 4 2 inch x 4 inch x 1½ inch high paper baking loaf pans in this recipe.
- Let it cool down at room temperature for 30 minutes. Plant 3 chestnuts in each pan and refrigerate at least 3 hours until the jelly is solid.
- Serve as a dessert or snack.
Hello!! This recipe looks really lovely. Thank you so much for making this website and making it easier for people to learn more about the culture of Korea through delicious cuisine. God bless you!!
Making it today!!!! Can’t wait to try it. I usually buy it from my local Korean grocery store when I go shopping. Will be substituting the gelatin with agar agar powder (equal parts) since I have a sister who is vegetarian… she will probably love it!!!!!
when i was boiling my beans they turned yellow not red
I finally made this tonight after the children went to bed. I can’t wait to eat it tomorrow–I think we will have it for a coffee break after breakfast. Yum!
Can I use a cheesecloth?
My fiance and I recently fell head over heels in love with Korean food. A friend took us to Korean BBQ (the all you can eat sort of place) and we had so much fun cooking the meat! I was curious to know what other foods we could expect from the Korean culture and I stumbled across your site…..Never again will I suffer through cooking another boring dinner! I discovered a local H Mart and haven’t purchased “American” groceries in weeks. I’m having so much fun trying everything that store has to offer, and always with a handful of your recipes tucked into my purse. So far, we haven’t made a bad meal yet. We really enjoy your fish recipes and I’m looking forward to trying some of the sweet dessert recipes as well. Thank you for taking the time to post all your recipes and tips, they’re opened up a whole new world of delicious possibilities!!!!!! <3 You are simply amazing.
I feel you are so getting into Korean cooking these days! Good luck with your Korean cooking! : )
hi maangchi, may i knw that approximately how many grams is the red bean ball? ^^
This may be a dumb question but… did you just you just use any regular household cotton cloth? Is that what I’m supposed to do? I’m so confused!
Yes, I did.
Hi, Maangchiii:DD
This was the first korean recipe I ever tried to do and it came out perfect!
I just love the texture of it and the earthy flavor it has, and the smell is also sooo incredible and mouthwatering. I am really looking forward to make some more 양갱 again.
Congratulations! I feel like making yanggaeng soon while reading your post!
Can you tell me how much gelatin was used? We don’t have sachet packs in Singapore. It’s sold as a huge bottle of 150g!
I measured 1 pkg of my gelatin powder and found it’s 7 grams: 2 teaspoons plus ¼ teaspoon gelatin powder). I updated the recipe. Good luck with making good yanggaeng!
너무 감사해요! Thank your for sharing Korean culture via these recipes. Appreciate your efforts taken to respond to my question. Maaganchi, 화이팅!
Hi Maangchi! I’ve actually been craving some 양갱 recently but my local Korean grocery stores have not had any yummy ones in stock. When I saw your video, I thought I could also make this as a present for someone I am visiting soon. I wanted to make them a little smaller than the ones you made and was wondering what kinds of containers/molds would work. If I used cupcake cups, would they end up looking terrible and sticking horribly to the paper?
So excited to try these! Thanks for the recipe!
Made this today, delicious! Although hard to find good quality beans in the part of London I’m in. I added whole walnuts and dried cranberries and only 1 1/2 of vanilla so it wasnt over sweetened with the cranberries. Im hooked! Thanks Maangchi :D
I’m glad to hear that yours turned out delicious!
I’ve made this with chopped chestnuts for my mum and she loved it! I know she likes Chinese sweet red bean soup so I made it. Thank you, Maangchi! You’re my number 1 internet chef!
Congratulations! You made this for your mom! clap clap clap! : )
Hi Maangchi – this looks awesome. I will definitely try them for a good dessert snack. One thing I wanted to share with you is that when we boil the azuki beans, we should throw out the first boiled water. This is to reduce the excess of saphonine ingrained in the beans.I have learned this through cooking class… and thought it be useful to share good health ideas. Best, JY
This isn’t vegan or vegetarian, sorry to say. Gelatin is made from the left-overs of cows and pigs: bones, tendons, connective tissue.
I’d love to see a version of this recipe that’s made with agar or some similar vegan gelatin. Is there a simple way to substitute agar for gelatin?
Love your site, keep up the amazing work!
@JonQuimbly My mom is usually made Yanggang a lot and she used Gelidiaceae(한천). Probably Mangchi concerned Gelidiaceae’s cost and access in America, I guess. You may able to buy Gelidiaceae in asian market. It is made by seaweed.
Oh my gosh I feel like I can almost taste this yanggaeng! Thanks for the great gift idea :D
Thank you very much for this recipe. It’s very similar to yokan, Japanese azuki desert. I’m always looking for new ways to use azuki, so this will be the next one I’ll try. Just in time for the holidays! ^_^
I have these beans but I also have the canned version. If I was pressed for time, do you think the canned version would also work? If you don’t know, I will just try it and see :)