How to Make Songpyeon for Chuseok

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 a Happy Chuseok!

Songpyeon is a special rice treat made in the Korean home during Chuseok (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.

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
• Purple – blueberry juice, purple grapes, purple sweet potato

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.💕

How to make Rice Flour for Rice Cakes or Tteok (aka Ssalgaru or Maepssalgaru)

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.

For more about other recipes for Chuseok and how to set the Jesa Table, check out my post on 9 Chuseok recipes with Jesa Table setting guide.

Songypeon (Korean Half Moon Rice Cake) Recipe

for 5 colors, 2 fillings and 3 ways to cook (stove top, instant pot, rice cooker)

Servings: 10 (60 pieces)     Prep Time: 6 hrs         Cooking Time: 20 min         Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

*Note, to make 4 cups fresh rice cake flour, you need 2 cups of short grain rice (see my rice cake flour post for recipe)

• For Basic White dough:
  • 2 cup frozen wet rice flour or fresh homemade rice cake flour
  • 4 Tbs + 2 tsp boiling water (less for homemade flour)
• For Yellow dough:
  • 2 cup frozen wet rice flour or fresh homemade rice cake flour
  • 50 g Kabocha squash, cooked
  • 4 Tbs boiling water
• For Green dough:
  • 2 cup frozen wet rice flour or fresh homemade rice cake flour
  • 2 1/2 tsp matcha tea powder
  • 4 Tbs + 1 tsp boiling water
• For Purple dough:
  • 2 cup frozen wet rice flour or fresh homemade rice cake flour
  • 3~4 Tbs cooked blueberry juice (1/4 cup blueberries + 1/4 cup water, blend then microwave for 45 sec then strain. will produce more than you need)
• For Pink dough:
  • 2 cup frozen wet rice flour or fresh homemade rice cake flour
  • 4 Tbs hot omija tea water or hibiscus tea
• sesame filling
  • 1/2 cup roasted sesame seeds
  • 2 Tbs honey
  • 1/8 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 to 1 tsp sugar (optional – if you like sweet)
• mung bean filling
  • 1/3 cup dry mung beans, skin removed
  • sea salt (1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp per 1/2 cup cooked), TJ’s fine sea salt
  • 2 Tbs honey (optional)
• sesame oil
• fresh pine needles, rinsed (optional)

Equipment needed

• steamer – bamboo steamer works best but a stainless steamer also works OR Instant Pot OR Rice Cooker with Steam function
• a silicone or cheesecloth liner for the steamer if no pine needles

1. If using frozen rice powder for rice cakes, thaw to room temperature. If you can’t buy one, you can make at home, follow my recipe for how to make fresh rice powder for rice cakes at home.
2. Soak dry mung beans in water for 2-3 hrs. If mung beans have a lot of skin, you may need to soak longer.
   

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.

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.

Mix with honey, pinch of salt and set aside.  Add more honey and sugar for extra sweetness.

Make white 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.
  

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.

For yellow 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.
  

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 Rice Dough with Kabocha for Songpyeon_

Cover with wet towel or plastic wrap. Let it rest.

For green dough:

• 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.

For purple dough:

• 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 –
  

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Serve warm.

Here’s my latest video on how to make Songypeon.

Here’s a fun video of how to make flower and pumpkin shaped Songpyeon. Try making some Jack O’ Lantern and Skull ones for Halloween!

How to make Flower and Pumpkin Songpyeon (꽃송편, 호박송편) and Halloween theme ones too!

FAQ and NOTES

• Is Korean Tteok Rice Powder the same as regular dry Rice Flour? NO. Rice powder used for Korean tteok is powder ground at a Korean gristmill (방앗간 Bangaht Ghan). Also called 멥쌀가루 Maepssal Garu, this powder is made from soaked wet rice and so still retains a certain amount of moisture. And thus, it can only be stored frozen. It is also customary to have salt added to the rice when it is ground to powder.
• Where can I buy Korean Tteok Rice Powder for Songpyeon? You can buy frozen Tteok Ssal Garu (Rice Powder) from most big Korean grocery stores. If you live near a big Korea town, there may be a Korean gristmill nearby or you can go to a Tteok store and ask if they can sell you some. But you can also make them at home. I made Songpyeon in this post with my own homemade rice powder and it came out pretty good but I have to say it is NOT the same as the ones you make with the rice powder you get from a Korean gristmill. Here’s a post where I talk about how to make Tteok Ssal Garu/Ssal Garu/Korean Rice Powder for Tteok at home.
• Storing leftovers – you can store leftovers by freezing them and then re-streaming them. You can also freeze uncooked Songpyeon and steam it later too. See recipe card notes for exact cooking times for IP.
• Do NOT microwave when reheating – it will get rock hard right after! 😵 😩
• 2 cups fresh rice flour weighs about 250 – 260 grams