Today, I will show you how to make an ingredient for Korean cooking - sticky rice cakes. They are commonly used for tteokbokki, tteokggochi, and tteokguk. Koreans take their rice to a shop and let them make it. It is an interesting process, which is detailed in this awesome blog post by the Stumbling Engineer. Outside of Korea, many people cannot find these sticky rice cakes where they live, so they want to make tteokbokki and tteokguk at home. With this recipe, you can make sticky rice cakes at home and enjoy tteokbokki and tteokguk.
Yield: 2½ lb. Sticky Rice Cakes
Short Korean Lesson: *^^*
- Tteok (떡) = Sticky Rice Cakes
- HuSik (후식) = Desserts
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients
- 3 Cups Rice Flour
- 1½ Cups Water
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1½ Cups Water + 1 tsp Sesame Oil
Directions
For the steaming process, filled almost half of a pan with water and boil it on high.
Meanwhile, combine 3 cups of rice flour and 1 tsp of salt.
Slowly add 1½ cups of water, stirring it gently.
The rice flour will be crumbly.
Prepare a wet cheesecloth. Place the cheesecloth in a steamer.
Add the rice flour on top of the cheesecloth.
Once the water starts to boil, steam the rice flour for about 20 minutes on high.
In a bowl, add 1½ cups of cold water and 1 tsp of sesame oil. If you don’t like sesame oil, you can use normal cooking oil instead.
After 20 minutes, the rice flour will be cooked.
Wear cotton gloves before placing the plastic gloves over your hands. This will help prevent your hands from becoming burnt. The dough will be hot!
Use a bread machine to knead the dough. I used the pizza dough setting for 25 minutes. It is very important to knead the dough thoroughly for the gluten to fully develop and become sticky, so I do not recommend taking any shortcuts with this step. =P
If you don’t have a bread machine, you can make the sticky rice cakes with 1½ cups of rice flour and 1½ cups of sweet rice flour instead of 3 cups of rice flour. Hand knead the dough for at about 10 minutes. Rice cakes made this way will be inferior to using a machine; hand kneading does not make a good texture for the rice cakes.
When you handle the dough, cover your hands and the board with a little oil and water so that the dough will not stick to things. Take some of the dough and round it. Roll it on a board with your hands until it becomes about half an inch in diameter.
For tteokbokki or tteokggochi, cut it into 2 inch pieces.
For tteokguk tteok, roll the dough into a 1-inch diameter, and leave it at room temperature for one day before you cut it.
If you put some water on your knife, it makes it easier to cut. After waiting one day, slice it diagonally into ¼-inch pieces.
Put the rice cakes in freezer bags and store them in the freezer.
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Hello! Can I use parchment paper instead of the cheese cloth? Because I don’t have cheese cloth. Hehehe.
Sorry but I don’t think parchment paper will work for it.
hi. i just wanna ask.. i dont have cheesecloth what can i use as an alternative.. do i just have to prepare a simple thin cloth? thanks!
hi aeri,
i want to ask, what the use of 1½ glass of cold water mixed with sesame oil? i read it all but you didn’t mention what the use of it. is it used when you make the dough? cmiiw
thanks before.
It helps the rice cakes will not stick to each other or.. plates..it also gives some good flavor of sesame oil to the rice cakes..and makes the surface of the rice cakes a little shinny too.
Hey Aeri,
I’m want to make patbingsu for friends and I don’t any Korean store around where I live so that I can buy the bingsu for the recipe. Can I just use this recipe to make the rice cake part of patbingsu? Do I have to add any sweeteners to the mix? Thanks ^^
It is nice of you..that you are going to cook something to your friend. this is my suggestion.. there are some recipes I made sticky rice cake dessert using sweet rice flour.. here is a link for you. http://aeriskitchen.com/2008/10/sweet-rice-cake-with-red-bean-paste-chap_ssal_ddeok/ just follow sticky rice cake part..and add more sugar to the batter..and reduce the water a little to make the texture more chewy and hard.. then you can use it to your potbingsu.. thanks
hi Aeri!
i really want to ask you something…aaa..can i just use my bare hand??beccause i doesn’t have the bread machine..
please answer…
oh!!! and one more questions…me in malaysia doesn’t have grain rice flour..can i use the’blended rice flour?’(its contains corn flour and rice flour)..thank you
Yes you can use bare hand too.. just make sure that you use right kind of flour..that is short grain rice flour for this one.
Hi, the recipe looks great, I really want to try it. But I have one question:
What do you do with the bowl of water and the sesame oil (after mixing them together)?
She uses them to keep her hands moisture when rolling the dough. It prevents her hands from getting sticky.
it’s mentioned next to the 13th picture.
Hi, I’m wondering now, I tried twice and got trouble the both time…
So I didn’t catch by the video I had to use regular (non) sticky rice flour…
So the first time I used 1/3 non-sticky and 2/3 sticky rice flour… and followed the process, I have a Traditional Wood Steam Clutch and I bought (specialy) a bread machine for…
(The second time I used 100% sticky flour) But after boiling on the stew, all Tteok’s melting like a kind of “Slime”, don’t know if you remember that Nickelodeon Sticky Liquid…
Very Chewy but definitely not Tteobokki style…
Can you tell me what’s wrong ?????????????
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Help piroe !!!!!
hi Sgk.korea,
So you are saying. you used…short grain rice at first ?? then later.. you used.. sweet rice flour ?? I was a little confused.but if you used 100% sweet rice flour.. that’s why the texture was like that… the best result will come from.. 100% short grain rice flour (Sushi rice..) ..and knead the dough very well.. (it can be great to use kneading machine like..bread machine or mixer.. ).. please let me know if my guessing was wrong.. I’m sorry that you tried twice and it didn’t work well..
Can i do this recipe by making it in half and use a handmixer with breadpins to knead it?
hi Kieu,
I will give a good link for the easier recipe for it.
Please try Maangchi’s recipe.
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/garaeddeok
^^ thanks
Hi Aeri
So we can’t use glutinous rice flour right? What other rice flour can we use except short grain rice flour?
hi Leann,
As my recipe said.. it’s kind of ..cheating.. to use glutinous rice flour.. it is the best to use short grain rice itself if you can.. for the right texture and flavor for rice cakes..
Hello Aeri! I am lost! When I tell the salesman at the store, “i need short grain rice flour,” he doesn’t know what it is. Can you please please please post the rice flour you actually used to make rice cake? That way I can read the fine details of the package.
also… if I go find me some short grain rice, as in rice, if I let the supermarket grind it to a flour for me, will it be okay for rice cake too?
hi Jane,
You went to a Korean grocery market ?? You can tell them.. “쌀가루 (ssalgaru)” I don’t have a picture for that rice flour right now..but I will post it someday.
I don’t know if supermarket do that kind of service (Grind your short grain rice..)..but if they do.. yes it will be nice to use it. If you have vita-mix at home.. you can grind your own….
can you describe the texture of the dough before and after we steam it
hi Fathirah,
You can imagine you mix normal flour with some water…and just mix it to make big chunks of crumbs.. instead the flour dough will be more soft… the rice flour dough is not that soft (a little like sand.. ) like flour dough..
is it possible to knead the dough first, shape it and steam it ? I found it is too hard to knead it after we steam the dough
hi Fathirah,
Well… ^^;; after you cooked the dough.. it will get right texture by kneading it.. you can try though.. sorry for poor answer..
Hi Aeri!
There aren’t any Korean grocery stores near me, but there are quite a few Chinese stores. Is Chinese rice flour likely to be made from short grain rice? The only other flour I can find is labelled ‘glutinous rice flour’ and I know this is not the right kind.
Thanks!
By the way, I love your website. The recipes are so delicious
Ah! Never mind that comment haha. It seems that Chinese rice flour is made from long grain rice, same as it is in Europe
However, I found some Japanese joshinko rice flour that says it is made from non-glutinous short grain rice. It seems that this would be suitable for making tteok, right?
hi Han,
Yes.. that japanese rice sounds right for this.. try it let me know.. thanks
Hi Aeri,
I really like your recipes but what if i dont have the machine? can I use my hand?
hi Choua Yang,
Yes.. knead it by hand.. ^^
hi Aeri
uh well, another Indonesian here xD
I just want to ask, if I can’t found the sweet rice flour and instead use the original recipe, can I still knead the dough by hand? or beside the texture it’ll turn out differently too?
and next it, how long you think I can store the tteok in freezer before it’s erm expired? lol
thanks before!!!
this recipe is a big help since I don’t live in capital and there is no store selling tteok or even kimchi here *sigh
hi chelle,
It is important to use short grain rice flour for right texture and flavor for this recipe. Knead the dough by hands until you get nice sticky..chewy texture.. ^^ You can keep the rice cakes in the freezer more than a month.. thanks
Hi, Aeri!
I have some rice cakes that I bought a while ago and they have been buried in the freezer for a looong time x_x I think I only used them twice. I still have a good amount left and I like to have ddeok in kimchi jjigae, but I don’t know if the ddeok is still ok to eat. How long do ddeok usually last if kept in the freezer? 
hi Sierra,
Unless it has mold or bad freezer buns.. it can be used ..after kept in the freezer for months.. thanks ^^
Hey , Aeri. Idk where to find Cheesecloth. Btw ,what can be change by the cheesecloth because it’s posssible for me to finf it. Hahaaahhh
hi MyTroubleMaker,
When the dough is steamed..it becomes sticky.. so if you have any thin material.. that can be used for cooking.. you can try it..
Hi Aeri,
I tried to make the ddeok three times but everytime the dough are becoming very hard (like rubber) and the color turns to a little dark, is there any wrong step i did? like maybe too much water or not enough water, or maybe i need more time to steam?
I don’t have the machine so i hand knead it
hi Andreas,
Did you use right kind of rice flour? (short grain rice flour)… if the dough are too hard.. you can add some hot or warm water and knead the dough.. it is not easy to knead it by hand.. sorry for poor answer.. if I can see what you exactly did..and what did you use.. I can answer better..
Hi,
I love your website…I have a question (maybe stupid) When we finished the rice cakes, why we have to put them in the freeze?
We can’t already prepared for the tteokbokki ?
hi Patricia,
If you are going to use them right away.. you can.. but if you are going to use them later.. you can freeze them. thanks
hey aeris <3
ghamsahamida! <3
i love all of your recipe and i have tried most of it~ and yes it is delish! you are my korean mama ^.^
for this recipe~ i dont have any cheese cloth, and i cant find any nearby place that sell one. any sugesstion what can i use to replace the cheese cloth? i was thinking banana leaves but im afraid the smell will affect the taste of this dduk~ hehe~ and i always look up your site for more new recipe
hi bella,
If you have thin cloth.. you can use it instead.. yes.. i’m not sure about banana leaves either.. ^^ thanks
hey …Aeri
..grain rice flour in indonesia not sweet and glutino. thats is ok??
i from Indonesia. i am verry like ur recipe. i hope i can find the right grain rice flour to make rice ckae korean. and i dont have rice cake machine. may be i use mixer. i hope i can nice rice cake like ur
hi lulu,
Hope you can get it over there. thanks
Thanks for your comment. It is important to use right kind of rice flour for this. You need short grain rice flour.