I love making Songpyeon more than eating it.

There are so many kinds of rice cakes and rice cake recipes in East Asian culture, and I can’t even go through the ones I know in Korea and Japan. (I lived in Korea and Japan, so that’s mostly all I know. Can you imagine how many other kinds are in other parts of the world?) Making songpyeon, which is a type of rice cake in Korea usually eaten on Korean Thanksgiving, requires more effort to shape. Let me first tell you a little bit about the Korean Thanksgiving Chuseok and the rice cake we eat on the day – Songpyeon.

A little about Chuseok

Chuseok, also known as Hangawi, is a Korean Thanksgiving day.

It’s a holiday for families to come together, express their gratitude for the year’s harvest, and remind us of our ancestors. I love holidays with traditions like this. Although I live in Norway, I like to spend this time of the year with people with Korean roots here. Since it’s Thanksgiving, there are a lot of typical dishes cooked on this holiday.

One of the most iconic Chuseok foods is songpyeon, a type of rice cake typically filled with sweet fillings like sesame seeds, honey, and bean powder. My family-in-law loves rice cake, and since it’s not possible to get rice cake in this country, I decided to cook some songpyeon and invite my family-in-law and their Korean Norwegian friends.

Let me tell you a little bit about this Korean traditional rice cake recipe today!

Songpyeon, the iconic rice cake for Chuseok

On Chuseok, a Korean Thanksgiving, a family likes to gather together to make and share these rice cakes as a way to give thanks for the harvest and show respect to their ancestors. You can learn more about Chuseok in my blog post.

Fillings in Songpyeon

Making rice flour dough is quite similar to many other types of rice cakes, but the filling is unique here.

This filling is what characterizes songpyeon from other types of rice cakes.

It usually consists of finely ground sesame seeds mixed with sugar honey, and soybean powder.

The fillings are placed in the center of the rice cake dough. You can also tell songpyeon from its shape – It is oval with a line in the middle. But nowadays, there are many different shapes to make it look pretty. Here’s how to make flower-shaped songpyeon.

There are also many different colors you can make with natural traditional ingredients, such as pumpkin for yellow, mugwort for green, and purple sweet potato for purple or pink colors.

Steam on Pine Needles

Traditionally, songpyeon is steamed over a bed of pine needles, which impart a subtle fresh fragrance to the rice cakes.

Modern methods may not involve steaming with pine needles as it takes time and effort.

But for this holiday, I wanted to do everything in my power to make my friends and family feel like they were back in Korea. So I went out to gather some fresh pine tree needles in a forest. Laying the pine tree needles underneath the rice cake when steaming is absolutely optional, but definitely a nice touch for this rice cake recipe!

Tools you need

Cake Tools 36 Piece Fondant Cake Cookie Plunger Shape Decorating Mold

To decorate your songpyeon, you need cake tools. An icing plunger tool works just perfectly for stamping out some pieces of rice cake. If you want to learn the details of how to decorate your songpyeon, check out my other blog posts here:

Decorative Rice Cake Recipe Part 1 | Flowers on Songpyeon

Decorative Rice Cake Recipe Part 2 | Flowers, leaves, pumpkin shapes

Chuseok Holiday, Korean Thanksgiving

That’s all you need! Now let’s get started with making songpyeon 🙂

Korean Rice Cake Recipe | Songpyeon

Songpyeon

Kreamy Vegan

An iconic white rice cake for Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving holiday

Print Recipe

Course Dessert

Cuisine Korean

Ingredients

  

Dough

• 200 g Rice flour
• 160 ml Hot water or 2/3 cup of water
• 2 g Salt

Fillings

• 1/4 cup Sesame seeds Roasted and half-grinded
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/3 cup Roasted soybean powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Date syrup

Instructions

 

• Mix salt and rice flour.
• Bring the water to a boil, and put hot water bit by bit on the rice flour. Mix the rice flour thoroughly with a spatula as you put hot water so every part of the rice flour gets moisturized.
• Knead the dough for 10 minutes once the flour gets clumped. Put the dough inside a container and let it rest for 20 minutes. In the meantime, make fillings.
• Roast the sesame seeds in a pan or put them in the oven for 15 minutes at 160 Celsius or 320 Fahrenheit. It will turn into a golden color.
• Cool the sesame seeds and grind them until half of the sesame seeds are broken and half of them are intact.
• Mix the sesame seeds, sugar, soybean powder, salt, and 1/4 of a teaspoon.
• Shape the dough into a songpyeon. Please find detailed instructions below.*
• Line a steamer with fresh pine needles if you have one. This traditional step adds a fragrant aroma to Songpyeon, but it’s optional.
• Steam the Songyeon for 10 minutes or until they become translucent and have a shiny appearance.
• Let it cool and brush it lightly with some neutral oil. Then serve it with a warm glass of tea!

How to shape the Songpyeon*

• Divide the dough into 20 grams each.
• Roll the dough into a ball.
• Flatten the ball into a small disk, and place a small amount of your desired filling. Usually, a 1/3 teaspoon will work.
• Carefully fold the dough over the filling to encase it, then pinch the edges together to seal it. 
• Dip your fingers in some water if the dough starts to crack.
• Shape it into a half-moon shape.

Notes

Tips

It is very important to use the correct rice flour! If you cannot find Korean rice flour, then you can use 50% of the rice flour of your choice and 50% of the glutinous rice flour. Korean rice flour is usually stickier than other kinds, which is a key feature you need in a rice cake. I find Thai rice flour works similarly to Korean rice flour. If I can’t even find Thai rice flour, I use 50% of Indian rice flour and 50% of Vietnamese glutinous rice flour.

Keyword rice cake, thanksgiving

Tips for Eating Sonpyeon

Cool it down before serving

Songpyeon is best enjoyed after it has cooled down for a while. It has more bite to it after it has cooled down. Depending on the room temperature, you can leave it for an hour to the next day for the best texture. In the fall, I find just a few hours cooled down the best time to serve it. If it’s during the summer, and you’d like to enjoy songpyeon right away, you can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Fancy upgrading your songpyeon?

If you want to take your songpyeon to the next level, you can use plunge cutters to put some flowers, or even make songpyeon into flowers! I can show you how to make Songpyeon into flowers or other shapes to decorate your plates. Check out my other blog posts here.

Flowers on Songpyeon | Decorative Rice Cake Recipe Part 1

Flowers, leaves, pumpkin shapes | Decorative Rice Cake Recipe Part 2

I have been eating a lot of songpyeon with my husband while I was making and experimenting with making songpyeon these days. I have been a little fed up with eating rice cakes, to be honest, but he doesn’t mind eating many of them every single day. We are pretty complimentary 😉