Korean Five-Color Songpyeon
Osack songpyeon are five-color rice cakes made for Chuseok, Korea's harvest festival. Rice flour dough is divided into portions and tinted with natural colorants including mugwort powder for green, gardenia water for yellow, and grape juice for purple, then kneaded with boiling water to develop a chewy, cohesive texture that raw-water dough cannot achieve. Each piece is filled with toasted sesame mixed with sugar or with sweetened red bean paste, then carefully pinched shut and shaped into a half-moon. Steaming for 20 minutes on a thick bed of pine needles imparts a subtle resinous fragrance to the surface, creating a layered aroma of wood and cooked grain that is distinctive to songpyeon and nothing else. A brush of sesame oil applied immediately after steaming gives each cake a glossy finish and prevents them from sticking together as they cool. The temperature and quantity of the boiling water during the kneading stage are the main variables that determine whether the final texture is perfectly chewy or disappointingly stiff. Traditionally, the entire family gathers the night before Chuseok to shape the rice cakes together, and that shared effort is considered inseparable from the taste.
Adjust Servings
Instructions
- 1
Divide rice flour and color with mugwort, gardenia water, etc.
- 2
Knead each color with boiling water to make the dough.
- 3
Prepare sesame and red bean fillings.
- 4
Shape into rounds, fill, and fold into half-moon shapes.
- 5
Steam 20 minutes on a bed of pine needles.
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Goes Well With
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