Daydreaming about desserts from South Korea, the likes of mochi Korean desserts and its many sweets? Before you begin, head to the online ecommerce sites or your local specialty stores selling Korean specialty items and stock up on the basics of glutinous rice, red bean paste, and the like. Most ingredients will have local substitutions but of course, the Korean touch will be missing, so, take your pick of these recipes of unique desserts from South Korea.
1. Chapssaltteok (Korean Mochi)
(Serves 6)
Ingredients
- 100 gm glutinous rice flour
- 60 gm caster sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 120 ml water
- 180 gm sweet red bean paste
- 3 tbsp corn flour
Instructions
- Take a microwavesafe bowl, add glutinous rice flour, sugar, and salt, then whisk to blend.
- Pour in the water and mix well. Cover the bowl with cling film, making sure it can stand microwaving, with a small opening, for steam to escape. Microwave for a minute.
- Carefully take out the bowl and stir thoroughly with a spatula.
- Cover the bowl again like before, and microwave for another minute. Note: Cooking time may vary depending on your microwave, you need a pliable dough, so adjust time as necessary.
- After 1 minute, take out the bowl and mix again. Let it cool until warm to the touch, and knead it in the bowl itself.
- Lightly dust a clean surface with corn flour and transfer the mochi dough to the prepared surface. Knead for a while then turn it into a long dough, dusting with corn flour as needed. Divide the dough into six equal pieces.
- Divide the sweet red bean paste into six equal parts and shape them into balls.
- Flatten each piece of mochi dough in your palm. Place a red bean paste ball in the center of each flattened dough. Gather the edges of the dough to seal around the filling.
- Roll each filled mochi in corn flour. Place in a baking cup, seamside down.
- Let the mochi cool to room temperature before serving.
2. Ggul tteok (Honey Rice Balls)
Serves 3
Ingredients
- 260 gm nonglutinous rice flour
- 240 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp pink food coloring
- 4 tsp green tea powder
- A few drops of water, for food coloring and tea powder
- 1 peach
- 15 walnuts
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 3 tbsp honey
Instructions
- Sift and mix the nonglutinous rice flour, sugar, and salt. Then pour the hot water into the bowl and mix to form a dough.
- In two separate small bowls, divide the drops of water in one bowl mix the food coloring with water, and in the other the green tea powder with water to create colored pastes.
- Take a handful, about 20 gm of the dough, and knead it with the green tea paste.
- Add the pink food coloring paste to the remaining dough and knead it well.
- Pluck out 20 gm of the pink dough, shape it into a round shape, and cover it with a damp cloth to prevent drying.
- Flour a surface with cornflour or rice flour. Roll out the green dough thinly with a rolling pin. Cut it into small leaf shapes using a knife or other tools.
- Peel the peach and cut it into small pieces suitable to use as filling for the rice cakes. Coat the peach pieces with honey. Mix the honey peaches with chopped walnuts and sesame seeds.
- Place the peach and nut mixture in the center of each pink dough round. Shape it and use a toothpick to create patterns resembling a peach. Attach the green leaf shapes.
- Steam the prepared rice cakes in a steamer for about 15 minutes.
- After cooling, mix sesame oil and vegetable oil in a 1:3 ratio and brush the rice cakes with it.
3. Yaksik (Fruit and Nut Honey Rice Cake)
(Makes 9 pieces)
Ingredients
- 600 gm sweet glutinous rice
- 480 ml water
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 120 gm chestnuts, peeled and cut into 34 pieces
- 60 ml raisins
- 60 ml dried cranberries
- 10 pitted dried jujube (red dates), halved
Seasoning sauce:
- 80 gm dark brown sugar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- ½ tsp cinnamon powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
For decoration:
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 23 pitted dried red date (jujube), sliced
Instructions
- Mix all seasoning sauce ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
- Rinse the sweet rice under cold water until the water runs clear, then drain and let sit for 1020 minutes.
- Add sweet rice, water, and the seasoning sauce in a rice cooker or multicooker pot. Mix well. Add the nuts and dried fruit on top. Stir to mix evenly.
- For the rice cooker, set to “multi steam” for 35 minutes. Use the 'rice' setting on high pressure for an Instant Pot.
- Prepare a square or rectangular container for molding. To make it easier, line with cling wrap.
- Once cooked, mix the rice, fruit, and nuts. Transfer to the mold and press down firmly.
- Let the rice cool in the mold for 2030 minutes. Then invert the mold onto a cutting board or simply lift using the cling wrap.
- You can decorate with pine nuts and sliced jujube in this stage. Then slice the yaksik into nine equal rectangles of your preferred size.
- Serve immediately and wrap the extra pieces, individually for storage to have later.