Today I will share my upgraded version of sweet rice and the red bean rice cake called ChapSsalTteok in Korean. It has an amazingly nice and chewy texture with a perfect balance of sweetness & saltiness for the rice cake part. I will share several tips to make a non-failure ChapSsalTteok in the video instruction, so please watch the video to the end.
Yield: 24 Pieces
Short Korean Lesson
- JaYeon (자연) = Nature
- InGan (인간) = Human
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients:
- 1 Box Sweet Rice Flour (3⅔ Cups or 1 lb)
- 2¾ Cups Water
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 2 Cups Red Bean Paste
- 1 tsp Salt
- Some Cornstarch
Directions
These are all the ingredients for this recipe.
First we need about 2 cups of sweet red bean paste. You want a find paste without any bean chunks.
You can use a store bought one like this, or make it at home using my sweet red bean paste recipe. Store bought ones are convenient to use, but many of them seem a little too sweet.
Take out 1 generous Tbsp of sweet red bean paste.
Then, gently roll it with both hands to make a small ball.
Do the same thing for the rest of the red bean paste to make 24 pieces. Tip: The sweet red bean paste can stick to your hands, so, every now and then, wash and dry your hands before rolling the red bean paste. Then, you will get a nice and smooth surface.
Cover the red bean balls with some plastic wrap, and put them in the freezer overnight. This is a great tip to make the final shape of the rice cakes good.
The next day, make a batter for the rice cakes. These are 2 different brands of sweet rice flour. Both are about 1 lb, and I’m going to use the whole box for this recipe. So, put 1 box (3⅔ cups) of sweet rice flour, 2 cups of sugar, and 1 tsp of salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix it all together.
Pour 2¾ cups of water on the rice flour mixture and then mix it gently. The consistency will be runny like this. It is okay to have some lumps that are not completely mixed.
Cover the mixing bowl with some plastic wrap and cook it in the microwave for 4 minutes.
After 4 minutes, you will see the batter is still runny. Mix it once.
Then, cover it with the plastic wrap again.
This time, cook it for 3 minutes in the microwave.
After 3 minutes, take it out. The batter still has lots of liquid with a few big chunks like this. Stir it once or twice and then cover it with plastic wrap. Put it back into the microwave and cook it for 4 minutes again.
After 4 minutes, you can see the batter is more dough-like, but it still has some uncooked parts. Stir it several times, especially around the surface of the mixing bowl.
Use the same process one more time, this time cook it for 3 more minutes. Finally, you will have a well cooked, shiny, and slightly transparent rice cake.
Knead the cooked rice cake with a big wooden spoon or other strong cookware for several minutes to get a nice chewy and elastic texture. I’ve broke my wooden spoon doing this before
, which shows how firm and chewy this is, so be careful not to break your spoon like me. hehe
When the rice cake dough is still hot, sprinkle some cornstarch on a cutting board. Cornstarch is another tip to work with sticky rice cake.
Remove all the dough from the mixing bowl and put it onto the cutting board.
Divide the dough into 4. (Put some cornstarch on the knife before using it.)
And then divide the each of the 4 pieces into 6 smaller chunks. This way you will get 24 pieces of similar size.
Take out the frozen sweet red bean paste balls from the freezer. They are firm so that they will keep their shape when you wrap them with the warm rice cake dough.
Take one piece of the rice cake and put some cornstarch on the surface if it’s too sticky to work with. Flatten the rice cake.
Place one red bean paste ball in the center.
Wrap the ball with the rice dough and seal it tightly like this.
Roll it out smooth. Use the same process for the rest of them.
You will get these beautiful and delicious ChapSsalTteok that you can enjoy for a party, dessert, or snack. Since this recipe makes a lot, you can cut the recipe in half, or you can freeze some for later. Simply wrap them with some plastic wrap and freeze them. Take them out of the freezer for about 3 hours before eating them. They will still be pretty fresh and chewy rice cakes. Try them someday.
Leave a Reply