Rice cakes can take different shapes and forms depending on the region they originate from, they may be made with puffed rice or with glutinous rice featured in delicious rice cake recipes. Some may be exclusively used for savoury preparations while others are centrepieces of desserts. Most cultures have their own take on the rice cake, making it a fascinating part of global cuisine.
Here, we’re going to talk about different types of sweet rice cakes around the world and encourage you to make these dessert cakes at home. Keep reading because there’s a bonus right at the end!
This is a soft and sticky rice cake dessert that comes from the Mandalay region in Myanmar. It contains glutinous rice, rice flour, and a mixture of dried fruits and nuts, and dessicated coconut.
Ansom chek is just one of the many rice cake sweets that can be found in Cambodia. It’s also found in Vietnam, where it’s known as Banh tet. Glutinous rice is moulded and rolled into a cylinder, stuffed with banana and steamed in banana leaves.
You probably already know of mochi, which is as popular as sushi and yakitori. Glutinous rice is pounded into a paste that’s then moulded into various shapes. It has a satisfying chew and is mildly sweet. Sweet mochi is usually filled with sweet red bean paste, ice cream, or even some type of fruit or jam.
Tteok is the Korean word for rice cakes, and one popular tteok dish is songpyeon, which is usually made during the Korean harvest moon festival (Chuseok). Songpyeon is made with short grain rice flour and has a half moon shape. It’s usually stuffed with sweetened sesame seed paste, red bean paste, and chestnuts. What gives songpyeon a distinct aroma is that it’s steamed on top of pine needles.
A Chinese New Year speciality, eating nian gap on the auspicious day is believed to bring good luck. There are some differences in the nian gao found all over China. This rice cake has the optimum mix of glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour to give it a lovely, chewy taste. It’s eaten at room temperature or it’s pan fried so the outside is crisp and the inside is gooey.
Rice cakes are popular throughout the Philippines, and one such example is bibingka. A typical recipe calls for galapong, a dough made by fermenting glutinous rice cake in coconut milk, eggs, and more coconut. The batter is then poured into banana leaves and baked.
Patoleo or Patoli is a type of rice cake stuffed with jaggery and coconut wrapped and steamed in turmeric leaves local to the Konkan belt. It’s usually made to mark celebrations like Ganesh Chathurthi or the Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary.
Here’s a recipe that you can replicate at home:
Ingredients:
For the rice batter:
For the filling:
Instructions: