Japanese Rice Cakes (Homemade Rice Cakes from Scratch)
This recipe teaches us how to easily make Korean and Japanese rice cakes with 3 simple ingredients: white rice, water, and butter. Homemade rice cakes are so chewy and delicious. They are perfect for making tteokbokki (Korean spicy rice cakes), tteokguk (Korean rice cake soup), yaki mochi (grilled Japanese rice cake), and zenzai (red bean soup with mochi).
Equipment
- Steamer (Or a large pot and a steamer rack)
- Stand mixer
- Nonstick silicone pastry mat
Ingredients
- 2 cups short grain white rice (Can also use sushi rice or glutinous rice. Do not use long grain rice or brown rice)
- 3 cups cold water (For soaking rice)
- 1 cup cold water (To be added into the soaked rice)
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter (Or vegetable oil)
Instructions
- Wash 2 cups of uncooked short grain white rice for 3 to 4 times, until the water becomes clear. Soak the rice in 3 cups of cold water overnight. After soaked, the rice grains should be easily crushed with fingers. Drain the water.
- Pour the drained rice grains into a plate, add 1 cup of cold water to the plate. Steam the rice over medium high heat for 40 minutes or until fully cooked. (You can use a steamer, a large pot with a steamer rack, or use three golf-ball-size aluminum foil balls as a steamer rack. See pictures above.)
- Transfer the steamed rice to a stand mixer bowl, add 2 tbsp of unsalted butter (no need to soften or melt, because the rice is hot enough). Use a flat beater to mix the rice over medium speed (speed 3 out of 6 speeds on my machine) for 40 minutes. (*See Note 1)
- 40 minutes later, transfer the rice cake dough to a nonstick silicone pastry mat, or cover the countertop with a few layers of food wrap to prevent rice cakes from sticking onto it.
- Knead the rice cake dough with your hands for about 5 minutes until it looks and feels smooth. The dough will be very sticky if it is still warm. If that happens, you can cover the dough with plastic food wrap, and keep it in the fridge for 1 hour until it's completely cooled down. It will be less stickier once it's cold.
- To make Japanese rice cakes (kiri mochi), divide the dough into two halves, take one of them, use your palms to press the dough into ½-inch-thick. Cut the dough into several 2½''L X 1½''W X ½''H cuboids. You can use these rice cakes for making yaki mochi (grilled Japanese rice cake) and zenzai (red bean soup with mochi).
- To make Korean rice cakes (garaetteok), take a small piece of rice cake dough and roll it into a ½-inch-diameter cylinder, then cut the cylinder into 2-inch-long pieces, about the size of your little finger. You can use these rice cakes for making tteokbokki (Korean spicy rice cakes) and tteokguk (Korean rice cake soup).
Video
Notes
Note 1: Warm stand mixer
Continuing to use the mixer and while it is too warm may cause damage to the mixer. If your mixer feels warm, let it rest and cool entirely internally before resuming mixing.
I gave my mixer a 15-minute break for every 10 minutes of working. While the mixer is resting, I'd cover the mixer bowl with plastic food wrap to prevent the rice dough from drying.
Note 2: Storage of homemade rice cakes
The best method is to freeze your rice cakes. You can line them on a baking sheet or a large plate (freezer safe). Make sure that the rice cakes do not touch each other.
Then, you just place the baking sheet straight into the freezer. After 4 hours to overnight, the rice cakes will harden. At this point, you can remove them from the baking sheet and freeze them in a Ziploc bag.
Homemade rice cakes can stay fresh in the freezer for up to 1 year.
To soften frozen rice cakes, you just blanch them in hot boiling water for about 30 seconds, drain and pat dry the rice cakes with some kitchen paper.