Homemade Rice cake
I’m a lover of rice cake. I think it’s influenced by my grandma. She loved anything chewy and she loved rice cake. While I can find rice cake at my local Asian Grocery store or Korean supermarket, there is something so satisfying making it at home. I feel a sense of accomplishment making something that I can usually buy. Best of all, this rice cake is really simple to make and all you really need is a steamer, no other fancy equipment.
What is rice cake made out of?
Traditionally rice cakes is made with soaked rice cooked in a steamer then pounded. The type of rice depends on the texture you want. A medium grain rice/calrose rice (regular rice flour) will give less chewiness and breaks more easily where short grain rice (glutinous rice flour) has a more sticky texture and stretches. Often times the two types of rice will be mixed together to make the rice cake.
When we add glutinous rice flour to the regular rice flour, the rice cake will have a bit of chew to it. However, don’t add too much glutinous rice flour or else it will become very sticky and hard to work with.
Ingredients
There are only 4 ingredients to make rice cake: rice flour, glutinous rice flour, and water. An option is also to add a bit of sugar. If you can’t find rice flour, try buying some rice and soak it over night. Then take the water out and blend it. If you are doing it that way, add less water. However, most Asian supermarkets will have rice flour, so you can just mix all the ingredients together.
- 2 cup rice flour
- 1cup glutinous rice flour
- 2/3 cup of water
- 1 tbsp of neutral oil
How to make rice cake
- Pour rice flour, glutinous rice flour into a mixing bowl.
- Add the water slowly and mix the flour with your hands until it can clump together when you squeeze it together.
- Then strain rice flour mixture through a strainer.
- Then line your steamer with a steamer cloth or parchment paper.
- Place the rice flour mixture into the steamer and place over cold water. Turn the heat on high.
- Once the water starts boiling, steam for 25 minutes.
- Once the rice flour dough is done steaming, remove the dough into a standing mixer bowl. Add a bit of oil.
- Using the standing mixer, turn the speed onto medium low and mix until the dough sticks together.
- Then shape the rice cake dough into long logs and cut them to the desired length or you can make very large logs and cut them long. The other option is to cut them into thin slices.
- You can make tteokbokki or use the rice cake to make soups or stir fry.
Pro tip
- Use a standing mixer to help knead the dough. If you don’t have a standing mixer, use a muddled or small rolling pin to pound the dough until it’s cool enough to knead by hand
- Wear gloves to protect your hands from heat and also sticking to your fingers
- Strain the rice flour mixture before steaming to ensure a smooth texture
- Add a bit of oil to the rice flour dough after steaming to ensure it’s smooth and soft.
- Don’t be tempted to add a lot of water. Too much water will make rice cake too soft and hardens in the fridge. It will break when you try to cook with it after.
Homemade rice cake
Equipment
- steamer
- standing mixer or muddler
- strainer
Ingredients
- 2 cup rice flour
- 1 cup glutinous rice flour
- ¾ cup water
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- How to make it
- Pour rice flour, glutinous rice flour into a mixing bowl.
- Add the water slowly and mix the flour with your hands until it can clump together when you squeeze it together.
- Then strain the rice flour mixture through a strainer.
- Then line your steamer with a steamer cloth or parchment paper with some holes poked into it.
- Place the rice flour mixture into the steamer and place over cold water. Turn the heat on high
- Once the water starts boiling, steam for 25 minutes.
- Once the rice flour dough is done steaming, remove the dough into a mixing bowl. Add a bit of oil.
- Using the standing mixer, turn the speed onto medium low and mix until the dough can be stretched.
- Then shape the rice cake dough into long logs and cut them to the desired length or you can make very large logs and cut them long. The other option is to cut them into thin slices.
- The rice cake can be used to make tteokbokki, soups or stir fry.
