This deliciously addictive Gluten Free Sweet Red Bean Rice Cake has the best of both worlds – the rich buttery taste of a regular cake but has the chewy(but not overly chewy) smooth texture of a rice cake. Koreans, especially those who live outside of Korea love this cake because it reminds them of the traditional Korean rice cake but it is easy enough to make at home. The ingredients are also pretty easy to get since it uses just Sweet Rice flour which is now readily available in most markets.
I first got to taste this gluten free Sweet Red Bean Rice Cake at my friend SoYoung’s house many years ago after I first found out I had gluten intolerance. I was still very weak after my gall bladder surgery and she invited me for lunch and this wonderful sweet dessert afterwards. She made it for me to help me get my cake fix and once I tasted it, I was totally hooked on it. It was so good, I think I ate it straight for many weeks after! I am always grateful for her for this wonderful recipe.
Recipe for Gluten Free Sweet Red Bean Rice Cake
Servings: 10 Cooking Time: 10 min prep + 1 hr baking Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1 lb sweet rice flour (= 1 pkg Mochiko powder)
- 1/2 ~ 1 C sugar
- 2 C milk
- 1 stick (or 4 oz) of salted butter (softened or melted)
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbs vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 ~ 1 can Azuki red bean paste OR 1 C home made red bean paste
- 1 C chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans will do fine!) – optional
- 9×5 loaf pan
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.
- In a mixing bowl, combine rice flour, baking powder and salt.
Mixing bowl with flour, baking powder, salt - Add milk, eggs, butter, vanilla extract and sugar.
Rice cake batter with eggs, butter, milk - Mix with cake mixer for 3 min. or more until well blended with little or no lumps. Like so~ it looks almost exactly like a regular cake batter, doesn’t it? 🙂
Rice cake batter mixed - Fold in red bean paste into the batter.
Folding in red bean paste into rice cake batter - Chop nuts and add to batter.
Chopping walnuts - Pour batter into a 9×5 non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean after poking the cake. I prefer to over bake then under bake because the top comes out nice and crusty when baked until golden brown.
Oven Baked Sweet Rice Cake One note about baking rice cakes — depending on the pan, it may sometimes stick to the sides of the pan. Lightly grease the sides of the pan if you want to make sure the cake comes out cleanly.
Sweet Red Bean rice cake baked in pumpkin bread pan I bought this loaf pan for baking pumpkin bread but the rice cake came out even better looking than the bread. It also tasted great because it was crispy on both sides and it was a great hit at my Studio Mari open house!
Gluten Free Sweet Red Bean Rice Cake (Tteok Ppang)
This deliciously addictive Sweet Red Bean Rice Cake has the best of both worlds – the rich buttery taste of a regular cake but has the chewy(but not overly chewy) smooth texture of a rice cake.Prep: 10 minutesCook: 1 hourTotal Time : 1 hour 10 minutesserves: 10Ingredients
- 1 lb sweet rice flour
- 1/2 to 1 cup sugar
- 2 cup milk
- 4 oz salted butter (softened or melted)
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 to 1 can Azuki red bean paste (OR 1 C home made red bean paste)
- 1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans will do fine!) – optional
- 1 9x5 loaf pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.
- In a mixing bowl, combine rice flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add milk, vanilla extract, eggs, butter and sugar to flour mixture.
- Mix with cake mixer for 3 min. or more until well blended with little or no lumps.
- Fold in red bean paste into the batter.
- Chop nuts and add to batter.
- Pour batter into a 9×5 non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean after poking the cake.
Tips & Notes:
Store the cake at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also freeze it right away and it will taste freshly baked when you defrost.
Add raisins or pine nuts for additional flavorNutrition Information:
Calories: 370kcal (19%)| Carbohydrates: 40g (13%)| Protein: 7g (14%)| Fat: 19g (29%)| Saturated Fat: 7g (44%)| Cholesterol: 61mg (20%)| Sodium: 159mg (7%)| Potassium: 213mg (6%)| Fiber: 1g (4%)| Sugar: 3g (3%)| Vitamin A: 410IU (8%)| Vitamin C: 0.2mg| Calcium: 100mg (10%)| Iron: 0.7mg (4%)
Storage
- Store the cake at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also freeze it right away and it will taste freshly baked when you defrost.
Variations
- Use less or no butter for a more traditional rice cake consistency
- Use less or more sugar to taste
- Add raisins or pine nuts for additional flavor
- Bake it in thin like brownie and you will have more crispy result
Enjoy this yummy Korean gluten free sweet red bean rice cake or tteok ppang with some ice cream!
This has become one of my favorites! For the latest batch, I baked them as cupcakes and they came out fine. Thank you for the great recipe!
Great!! Yes, it bakes great as cupcakes or even little mini bundt cakes – like in this post. https://kimchimari.com/sweet-rice-bundt-cake-freshly-milled-flour/. Thank you so much for your kind comment. Cheers!
Interesting… so this is a Western fusion cake made with some red bean and rice flour. This is going to be a hit for GF food lovers, or those who choose to eat that way. Yummy dessert with coffee or tea.
Yes it is!! My daughter took this to her work and it was a great hit with her co-workers. And personally, it works great for me because I do better with GF foods. Thanks for the comment!
Oh I forgot to mention, I made this with only 7tbsp of butter (I needed a tbsp for another recipe and just cut it off the stick I was using for this recipe lol), and 3/4 cup of sugar, and I cooked it in a bundt pan for about 1 hour 20 (bundt pans always take longer). It was perfect! 🙂
Great!! Yes, I have definitely made it with less butter and less sugar and it still works!! And using bundt pan is a great idea!! I LOVE bundt pan shapes – I will have to try it myself. Thank you again for sharing~ Happy Lunar New Year to you! 새해 복 많이 받으세요. 댓글 남겨주셔서 너무 감사해요.^^
I am studying Korean, and I made this to celebrate 설날 and brought it to school to share with my classmates and teachers. My teachers are all Korean natives, and they loved how authentic this recipe is! Thank you for sharing this recipe, I will make it again and again in the future!
Hello Jessica. Sooo happy to hear from you and that your sweet red bean rice cake was a success with your class. How fun!! The rice cake is not fully traditional (since it uses butter) and is baked instead of steamed but the flavor is definitely authentic so there you go!! Thank YOU for your wonderful comment – it just makes my day!!
I made it and it’s really yummy! I ended up only having a bread loaf pan and made it that way, of course it took a bit longer to cook through but it had a nice crunchy outside and almost like mochi cake inside. 🙂
So happy to hear that the tteok ppang (sweet rice cake) turned out yummy for you! Yes, if the pan is too small, the sweet bean rice cake may take a long time to fully cook. If you have a Brownie pan (9x9in or similar), use that and it will cook faster and will have more crunchy surface. Keep up the good work! Thank you~
This looks really yummy. Have you ever tried it with brown rice flour? Does the flour have to be the sweet rice kind?
It is really yummy! I have not tried it with brown rice flour but I think it should work. If you don’t use sweet rice flour, it will probably be just less chewy. If you make it, I would love to hear how it turns out for you!! Good luck!!
Omg yummmm I’m so happy I found your blog~~ thanks for the recipe!
Gina
I’m so glad you found my blog too! you are very welcome and hope it turns out well for you!! Thanks for visiting~
This looks fun!
Yup! Hope you try it~
Well I love red bean here in Korea so I think I’d be fine with finding an excuse to have to try this! 😉
Would definitely love to try this!! ^^