Loaded Sweet Rice Cake

Good morning! Today is an especially wonderful day because it is the start of spring break! I’m roadtripping  off to Boston with the boyfriend, Deborah, and Yoon in just a few minutes. Can’t wait!

I had three midterms and a paper due this week, but I still managed to squeeze in some time for baking. I wanted to make something quick, but also something healthy that I could snack on while studying, since I didn’t have much time for cooking.

After a quick search, I found a recipe for “energy dduk” (Korean-style rice cake). The ingredient list included seeds, nuts, dried fruit, and beans, which meant this rice cake was packed with carbs, protein, and fiber – perfect for fueling my body and brain during late night studying!

It literally took about 3 minutes to whip up the batter for this rice cake. The longest part of the prep process was waiting for the oven to preheat!

This is my new favorite baked rice cake! I like it even better than the red bean mochi cake I made for my birthday last year. It’s crispy on the outside and so, so chewy. Plus, it’s filling and nutritious! You can add any dried fruit, nuts, and beans you like – apricots, dates, walnuts, chestnuts, chickpeas, blackbeans, etc., etc., etc.

I’d definitely bring this along for our road trip if it wasn’t all gone already! Sadly, I didn’t have any more adzukis, so I baked some cappuccino cookies instead.  Time for 10+ hours in the car!

Loaded Sweet Rice Cake

Source: adapted from shinshine

Ingredients

• 2 cups sweet rice flour (Mochiko)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
• 1 cup chopped pecans (or any nuts/seeds)
• 2 cups boiled, drained sweet red (adzuki) beans (or beans of your choice)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans (or one 11×7 inch pan) and line with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine sweet rice flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk and egg, then pour into dry ingredients and mix well.

3. Stir dried cranberries and pecans into the batter. Gently fold in the cooked adzuki beans.

4. Scrape batter into prepared ban and spread evenly. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until top is golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

5. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completley before cutting into slices.

Korean Steamed Sweet Rice Pudding

I’ve been really missing home lately. Because I go to school on the other side of the country, I only get to go home twice a year, for winter and summer breaks. However, this year, I decided to spend a disgustingly hot and humid summer in Cleveland to work and study for the GRE, so I haven’t been home for nearly a year. I never really get homesick, but I’m really looking forward to being back in Portland for the holidays.

My parents and siblings have visited me a couple of times in Cleveland, though, which was nice. They always bring me lots of awesome gifts, including my mom’s special homemade treats like jam and baked goods. This week,  I received a care package from home that was stuffed with fresh persimmons, as well as dried persimmons and apples that my mom dehydrated herself, hazelnuts that my mom gathered from a farm near our house, and some of my favorite teas.

These care packages are always appreciated because I know it takes a lot of time and thought to prepare them. I love getting these delicious little bites of home and I can’t wait to be back in Portland so I can devour even more of my mom’s yummy food. I think the reason that I’ve been posting more Korean recipes lately is because they remind me of home. My mom makes scrumptious hobak jook, and baking with goguma was partially inspired by my mom’s delicious goguma cheesecake.

Whenever I go home, my mom makes a HUGE batch of yak shik because she knows how much I like it. Yak shik is Korean sweet rice pudding, and it literally means “medicine food.” It’s wonderfully chewy (love!), sticky, and full of fall flavors. I make my yak shik with raisins and chestnuts, but dried dates and pine nuts are commonly used ingredients as well. I love this recipe because all you have to do is mix together the ingredients and throw them into the rice cooker. So easy!

The recipe I use is almost identical to my mom’s, but for some reason, it always tastes so much better when she makes it for me. I can’t wait to be back in my kitchen at home drinking tea and eating yak shik to my heart’s content

Korean Steamed Sweet Rice Pudding - Yak Shik

Source: adapted from Migi’s Kitchen

Ingredients

• 2 cups sweet rice (chapssal)
• 2/3 cup peeled, chopped chestnuts
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Wash sweet rice and soak in water for at least six hours, or overnight.

2. Drain sweet rice and combine with chestnuts and raisins in rice cooker.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together water, brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and ground cinnamon. Pour mixture into rice cooker with sweet rice, chestnuts and raisins, and stir well.

4. Close rice cooker and cook according to manufacturer’s instructions. When the yak shik is finished cooking, let it sit on the “keep warm” setting for 5-10 minutes.

5. Mix the yak shik well, then transfer it to a 13×9 inch glass baking dish. Press mixture evenly into baking dish and cool completely before cutting into squares.

Red Bean Mochi Cake

One of the things I look forward to most about my birthday is being able to eat delicious cake. When I was growing up, my mom always baked my birthday cake. For the past few years, though, I’ve had storebought cakes, courtesy of lovely friends. I truly appreciate their thoughtfulness, but after years of eating my mom’s fabulous homemade creations, I have become picky about cake. 

Last year, a huge group of friends surprised me on my 21st birthday with a stand mixer and a cake from the local grocery store. I was delighted by the mixer, but the cake left something to be desired. It was tasteless yellow cake with a super thick layer of overly sweet frosting. Half of it was left uneaten, so we ended up completely destroying it with some plastic spoons. Below are the remains of my unfortunate cake.

It was a good thing that I’d already had amazing chocolate fondue earlier that evening, or I might have cried. This year, I was determined not to be disappointed with my birthday dessert, so I decided to make my own. But instead of a typical American birthday cake, I wanted to make a mochi cake, which is somewhat similar to the dduk (traditional Korean rice cakes) that I love so much.

The  red bean mochi cake is slightly sweet and has the characteristic chewiness of dduk that makes it so incredibly good. It does not have a light and spongy texture, but rather it is dense and sticky. I love this mochi cake; I can eat piece after piece with no end in sight. My suitemates loved it, and the boyfriend inhaled 3 pieces in about 20 seconds. If you’ve never had a mochi cake before, try it ASAP. You’ll fall in love - the sweet red bean flavor and addictive chewiness are impossible to resist

Red Bean Mochi Cake

Source: adapted from Tiny Urban Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 lb. sweet/glutinous rice flour (Mochiko)
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups nonfat milk
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup adzuki (sweet red bean) paste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and generously grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans, or one 13×9 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix sweet rice flour, eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and sugar until smooth. Stir in red bean paste.

3. Pour mixture into prepared loaf pans and bake in preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

4. Cool to room temperature before cutting into slices and serving.