Round and chewy gyeongdan are traditional Korean cakes consisting of soft rice dough that is wrapped around sweet red bean filling. When boiled, they are usually coated with colorful powders – from ground black sesame and toasted soybean to mugwort powder and grated tinted coconut.
These bite-sized rice cakes are a popular sweet treat often enjoyed on various special occasions.
Korean Sweet Rice Balls | (경단 – Gyeongdan)
Course: DessertCuisine: KoreanDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes20
minutes300
kcal40
minutesGyeongdan refers to small rice balls coated with various ingredients such as Soybean powder, Black Sesame powder, Red Bean paste, Chest Nut paste, Castella powder, Cinnamon powder. Gyeongdan is a kind of Korean rice cake and is eaten as a snack or dessert.
*Ssuk (Mugwort) is a type of herb and is also used in Korean food as a soup, rice cake, tea and herbal medicine.
Ingredients
600g Glutinous Rice Powder
1tsp Salt
2tbs Sugar
400ml Hot Water
30g Pine Nut
300g Castella
30g Black Sesame
40g Fine Desiccated Coconut Powder
30g Ssuk Powder (Mugwort Powder)
Directions
- Add salt, sugar into hot boiling water
- Add hot water into glutinous rice powder gradually
- Make smooth dough and rest it for 20 minutes
- Make castella and black sesame into powder
- Put pine nuts inside of dough and make them into 1.5cm diameter balls
- Cook the rice balls in boiling water
- When rice balls float on the water, take them out
- Wash them in cold water or ice water and drain
- Coat rice balls with the castella powder
- Coat rice balls with honey or maple syrup for sweetness and coat with black sesame powder, desiccated coconut powder, ssuk powder (Mugwort powder)
