How to make Songpyeon for Chuseok! I share how to make them in 5 colors – white, yellow, green, purple and pink/red and then with 3 different fillings. Including instructions for steaming 3 ways – on the stovetop, Instant Pot and the Korean pressurized rice cooker!
Songpyeon for Chuseok (Korean Rice Cakes with Pine Needles)
Songpyeon for a Happy Chuseok!
Songpyeon is a special rice treat made in the Korean home duringChuseok(秋夕) to celebrate the year’s harvest and to wish every family member good health. Songpyeon is made from 100% short grain rice cake dough that’s filled with various fillings then hand shaped and steamed. When steaming, it is traditionally steamed on top of a layer of pine needles.
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Pine needles🌲 add a wonderful evergreen aroma and also act as a non-stick liner preventing Songpyeon from sticking to the steamer. Additionally, Korean ancestors also believed that by steaming the rice cakes with the pine needles,the ‘chi’ of the pine tree gets absorbed into the rice cakes then that ‘chi’ transfers on to the person who eats them, helping them become healthy and strong like the pine trees. 😉 🌲
The rice cake dough is by default white but can be colored and flavored with various traditional ingredients like below –
Different colors of Songpyeon 송편 and how Koreans naturally color them
Green – mugwort powder (Ssuk Garu 쑥가루)
Yellow – pumpkin powder (Danhobak Garu 단호박 가루), gardenia seed pods (Chija 치자) but sometimes the taste can be a bit strange after a while
Red – Cockscomb flower (Maendrami 맨드라미), Beets
Pink – Youth berry or magnolia vine (Omija 오미자) aka Schisandra chinensisis is a red berry that has 5 flavors, raspberry juice
Songpyeon fillings also come in several varieties.
Sweet Honey Sesame – crushed sesame seeds mixed with honey
Mungbeans – mungbeans are steamed then mixed with sugar
Chestnuts – use canned chestnuts with syrup or regular cooked chestnuts
Edamame – green edamame beans are cooked and salted
My husband’s and my favorite filling is the Sweet Honey Sesame filling but you can try whichever one or all of them!! ❤️
Story of Songypeon and Chuseok
Before we get started, let’s talk a little bit about Chuseok. Chuseok literally means, “Autumn Evening” and it always falls on August 15th on the lunar calendar which translates to October 4th in the year of 2017, close to autumn equinox. I know I am a little late for that date here but I thought I would put up the recipe still…
Chuseok is also called Hangawi 한가위 in Hangeul and it is the day of the largest full moon. This is also harvest time for most crops, especially Korean rice. So, on this holiday, Koreans make Songypeon, rice, rice wine with new rice crop along with other dishes like fish jeon, meats, namul and fruits.
Then, on the morning of Chuseok, families offer a table full of food to their ancestors through a memorial ceremony called Charye 차례. So, before Chuseok, Koreans return to their hometowns to pay respects to their ancestors for a bountiful harvest. This was also a time for the whole extended family to be together, much like the tradition of American Thanksgiving. For some families, this Charye tradition was strictly observed and passed on for generations.
For other families, especially Christian families like ours, the tradition of Charye kind of disappeared over the years. Since my grandparents on both sides considered this to be equivalent to having idols other than God.
But we still made Songypeon every year and I remember the adults telling me that if I made pretty Songpyeon I would have a beautiful daughter when I got married. I didn’t really think about having kids or even getting married back then so it really didn’t mean anything to me but I do remember being happy about hearing compliments that my Songpyeon was pretty looking. 😝
I also remember being filled with joy and happiness, being together with my family, making Songypeon while smelling the wonderfully aromatic smell of pine tree needles steaming together with our rice cakes.💕
Rice Flour-Tteok Ssal Garu for making Korean Rice Cakes
If you need or want to make fresh rice flour at home to make Songpyeon or other Korean tteok, click on the link above to see how you can make your own moist rice flour at home.
Soak dry mung beans in water for 2-3 hrs. If mung beans have a lot of skin, you may need to soak longer.
mung beans soaking water songpyeon
When mung beans are fully soaked, rub beans with hands to remove as much skin as possible. Drain top water away with the skins (as they will float to top). Add water again and repeat if necessary. Try not to rinse too many times though as every time you do that, the flavor gets washed out. No need to remove every single outer skin but as much as you can.
Get a steamer ready and steam the mung beans for 15 min until they are soft and crushes easily.
Use a blender to coarsely chop mung beans. You can season with salt only for the most traditional taste or add honey for a sweeter flavor.
mung bean filling with honey and salt for songpyeon
Crush sesame seeds using a mortar and pestle. You don’t need to crush all seeds, just about half so that the flavor is released.
crushing sesame seeds for filling
Mix with honey, pinch of salt and set aside. Add more honey and sugar for extra sweetness.
Makewhite dough:
In a bowl, add 2 cup rice flour. Add 4 Tbs hot boiling water and mix with spoon. Once it’s cooled a bit, knead dough with hand.
making white rice flour dough for songpyeon
Knead dough with the heel of your hand for few minutes. (5 min or so). Add about 2 tsp boiling water, more or less depending on the dryness of the powder. The dough should not break easily but also not be so wet that it doesn’t hold shape.
Cover with a wet towel or plastic wrap. Let it rest for few minutes.
Foryellow dough:
Peel the outer skin of Kabocha squash and cut thin pieces weighing about 50 grams.
Cook squash in the microwave for 40 ~ 50 sec or so until fully soft.
In a bowl, add 2 cup rice flour. Add cooked Kabocha by pressing it against a sieve for best results.
Kabocha squash crushed for yellow songpyeon
kabocha squash pressed against sieve
Kabocha squash and rice flour makes yellow songpyeon dough
Add 3 Tbs boiling water. Mix with spoon and then with your hands to form a dough.
Knead the dough with heel of your hand for few minutes.
Yellow Dough Songpyeon (Korean Rice Cake for Chuseok)
Yellow Rice Dough with Kabocha for Songpyeon_
Cover with wet towel or plastic wrap. Let it rest.
Forgreendough:
In a bowl, add 2 cup rice flour and 2 1/2 tsp matcha powder or mugwort powder. Add more for darker green color.
Add 4 Tbs boiling water. Mix with spoon and then with your hands to form a dough.
Knead the dough with heel of your hand for few minutes. Add 1 tsp or more water as needed.
Cover with wet towel or plastic. Let it rest.
Forpurpledough:
Purple dough with blueberries
In a small blender, blend 1/4 cup blueberries and 2 Tbs water.
Microwave blended blueberry juice for 25-30 seconds until it boils and is cooked.
Strain the hot blueberry juice into a bowl. It should make about 3 Tbs. Reheat the juice in the microwave for 15 seconds until it just starts to bubble.
Add 2 cups rice flour into the bowl with the hot blueberry juice. Mix and knead the dough. Dough should be still a bit too dry. (as shown above)
Add about 1.5 to 2 tsp of hot boiling water. Knead again until color is evenly mixed and looks smooth like this –
finished purple tteok dough
Cover with wet towel or plastic wrap. Let it rest.
For Pink Dough– make exactly the same way as making purple dough but just use raspberries instead of blueberries
Setup a station with all the fillings and doughs together. Prepare a small bowl of water. Prepare a tray with cover (plastic wrap or tin foil) for the Songpyeon.
First, make a 1 inch or slightly bigger ball with dough in your hand. Then press down the center to form a little bowl with your fingers. If it starts to crack too much, dip your finger in the water bowl and add a little more water to the dough. Repeat again.
Fill the bowl with a filling – make sure you top it off.
Then lightly pinch edges to make a half moon shaped Songpyeon rice cake.
Making Songpyeon Ball
making dough cup for Songpyeon
Making Songpyeon cup
forming dough cup for Songpyeon filling
rice dough cup filled with sesame
closing up sesame filled rice dough cup
closed up sesame filled rice dough cup
closing up Songpyeon
Place Songpyeon on the tray making sure they are not touching each other. Keep it covered.
Repeat with different color dough and different filling.
Layer bottom of steamer with pine needles. If you can’t find pine needles, you can just use a silicon mat or cheese cloth.
Place Songpyeon in the steamer. Close the lid and steam for 12 minutes.
Songpyeon ready for steaming
3 WAYS to STEAM
STOVETOP– close the lid and steam for 12 minutes.
INSTANT POT– add 1 cup of water (for 6 QT, 2 cups for 8 QT, 1/2 cup for 3 QT mini), then use a silicone steamer basket to steam. Close lid, lock valve, select Steam function for 12 minutes. Manual Release after it’s done.
Pressurized Rice Cooker– I use Cuckoo which has a steam function. It’s labeled as Multi-Cook in English. Add 1 cup water and use a silicone steamer basket. Close and lock lid, select STEAM (or Multi-Cook function for Cuckoo) for 20 minutes (this was minimum time).
Prepare 2 bowls, a tong and sesame oil. Fill one with cold water.
When steaming is done, let it cool for 2-3 minutes for stove top but for Instant Pot or rice cooker, you can open immediately. Here is how they look after cooked. Notice the change of color – how vibrant they are!
Songpyeon finished steaming
Using a tong, pick up rice cakes and drop them in the cold water bath for a quick rinse and to remove any stuck pine needles.
Songpyeon in Cold water bath
Transfer rinsed rice cakes into a colander to drain. Quickly add drained rice cakes to a bowl, drizzle lightly with sesame oil. Toss to coat Songpyeon evenly with oil.
