Here it is – FINALLY a Yaksik recipe that I’m happy with. One that’s easy and quick but also authentic tasting. I wanted to post about Yaksik much sooner but the recipe I got from my mother-in-law takes about 8 hours (not including the time to soak the rice in water) which was just too time consuming for anyone to really try. I have to confess that I couldn’t even get myself to try it!!! There are many Yaksik recipes that requires much less time but I did not like the taste of most of them. Most were too mushy, too sweet, not sweet enough or flavorful enough. The rice in Yaksik should be a bit chewy and many recipes fail to yield the right texture. Anyway, I am proud to finally post this recipe which is my own unique version based on various recipes from my friends and also from a couple of old cook books that I had.
History of Yaksik
Before we get into cooking, a few quick comments – Yaksik was created by the same person who invented Yakwa (check my story of two Korean sweets) and is meant to be a snack or a dessert. Yaksik is eaten at room temperature and will keep for a few days (during cool season) since it is quite well seasoned. For longer storage, you can refrigerate or freeze it and thaw or heat quickly in the microwave.
Yaksik not only tastes good but is also very healthy. The fabulous nutritional properties about sweet rice are that it’s very easy on the stomach it’s known among Koreans to be great for people who have digestion problems and for people who have frequent heartburn. Please, I am not suggesting this as a health remedy just passing on some information that many Koreans talk about. Consult your doctor first, get the right diagnosis and treatment before you try this if you have stomach issues.
In addition to sweet rice, jujube (대추 Daechoo) and chestnuts are added to Yaksik. Jujube has long been known to be an anti-aging food in eastern medicine and it also has calming effects that can help with nervous tension, anxiety and insomnia. Jujube tea is also great for preventing colds (it keeps your body warm) and strengthening the liver.
Chestnuts have tons of vitamin C and vitamin Bs which help to also strengthen your stomach, especially with diarrhea. Finally, this dessert does not contain any flour so it’s very low in gluten. Soy sauce is made from wheat so I can’t say it’s totally gluten-free but should be fine for people who are gluten sensitive like me. (I tested negative for Celiac disease but I know eating a lot of bread, cakes and pasta will lead to bloating and diarrhea. So therefore I’m “gluten sensitive”.)
A note about my mother-in-law’s original, authentic recipe – the rice is soaked for 5 hours, steamed for an hour (you can use a bamboo steamer and line it with some cheesecloth and spread out the soaked sweet rice before steaming) and then cooked further in a double boiler for 6 hours after it is seasoned. So that’s 12 hours or more!! It does taste divine though… 🙂 but we have modern inventions like steam rice cookers so let’s just take advantage of that.
The following recipe takes about 2 hours in total and about an hour of actual cooking time when using a pressure cooker.
TRY My INSTANT POT YAKSIK RECIPE
If you have an Instant Pot, you can try this recipe – it’s just as yummy as this one!
How to make Yaksik
Ingredients
- 4 C sweet rice
- 2 C water
- (1 1/3 to 1 1/2 C sugar + 3 T honey) OR (1 1/2 C dark brown sugar)
- 4 T soy sauce
- 4 T sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder (optional – not in my MIL’s recipe)
- 1 13 oz canned chestnuts or 1 1/2 C peeled chestnuts (uncooked)
- 1 C dried jujubes (aka dried red dates)
- 2 T pine nuts
You need: a pressure cooker (pressure rice cooker works best), 8×8 cake pan or 12 or more cupcake liners or ramekins.
Directions
1. Measure the sweet rice and soak in cold water for 1 hour (soak 5 hours if you are cooking in the microwave instead of a pressure cooker).
2. Measure and prepare the pine nuts, chestnuts and jujubes. Drain the syrup from the canned chestnuts and set aside. Canned chestnuts work best but you can also use uncooked peeled chestnuts.
Wash the dried jujubes, making sure the dust in between the wrinkles are completely washed away. Dry them with a towel. If they are seeded, cut around the seed. If they are seedless, one less thing to do! Cut the flesh into small squares (1/2 inch) or strips.
Save the seeds and make some jujube water by boiling and then simmering the seeds in 2 cups of water for 10 min. Now you have jujube tea (대추차 daechucha) which you can drink with some honey and also use some to cook the rice later. Jujube water adds much more flavor.
3. After the sweet rice has soaked for an hour, drain the water from the rice. Cook the rice in a pressure rice cooker by adding 2 C of water (use 1/2 C of the jujube water from step 2 if you can) and follow the instructions for cooking regular white rice. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can cook the rice in the microwave – add about 1 C of water and cook on high for 10 minutes.
4. When the rice is cooked (the rice will be very sticky but should not be too mushy), add the sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and cinnamon powder. Mix the rice well but not too much because it will become too starchy. Stir only until the rice is evenly seasoned.
5. Add the jujubes, chestnuts and pine nuts. Fold them into the rice.
6. Put everything back in the pressure cooker and if you have a ‘steam’ option, steam for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a ‘steam’ option, just choose the shortest rice cook time and cook it again.
7. You are ready to serve Yaksik now (or later). Fill a 8×8 cake pan with the Yaksik and let it cool. Once it’s cool to touch, cover it to keep it from drying. Cut it into small squares or 2/3 in thick slices and serve. You can also spoon them into cupcake cups or ramekins like the picture below. Again, when it’s cooled, cover with some plastic wrap.
Variations
- Some recipes add caramel sauce instead of honey. My sister #1 actually adds about 2 T of molasses instead of honey. I did not get to test it this time around but I do remember my sister’s Yaksik tasting really good too so you can give that a try.
- Sister #1 also likes to add other dried fruits (apricots, raisins..) and I think that’s a great way to add more fiber to the dish.
Korean Sweet Rice Dessert (Yaksik)
Ingredients
- 4 cups sweet rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 1/3 - 1 1/2 cups sugar (or 1 1/2 C dark brown sugar instead of regular sugar and honey)
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 4 Tbsp soy sauce
- 4 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
- 13 oz canned chestnuts (uncooked, or 1 1/2 C / 375 ml peeled chestnuts)
- 1 cup dried jujubes (aka dried red dates)
- 2 Tbsp pine nuts
Instructions
- You need: a pressure cooker (pressure rice cooker works best), 8×8 cake pan or 12 or more cupcake liners or remekins.
- Measure the sweet rice and soak in cold water for 1 hour (soak 5 hours if you are cooking in the microwave instead of a pressure cooker).
- Measure and prepare the pine nuts, chestnuts and jujubes. Drain the syrup from the canned chestnuts and set aside. Canned chestnuts work best but you can also use uncooked peeled chestnuts.
- Wash the dried jujubes, making sure the dust in between the wrinkles are completely washed away. Dry them with a towel. If they are seeded, cut around the seed. If they are seedless, one less thing to do! Cut the flesh into small squares (1/2 inch) or strips.
- Save the seeds and make some jujube water by boiling and then simmering the seeds in 2 cups of water for 10 min. Now you have jujube tea (대추차 daechucha) which you can drink with some honey and also use some to cook the rice later. Jujube water adds much more flavor.
- After the sweet rice has soaked for an hour, drain the water from the rice. Cook the rice in a pressure rice cooker by adding 2 cups of water (use 1/2 cup of the jujube water from earlier if you can) and follow the instructions for cooking regular white rice. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can cook the rice in the microwave – add about 1 cup of water and cook on high for 10 minutes.
- When the rice is cooked (the rice will be very sticky but should not be too mushy), add the sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and cinnamon powder. Mix the rice well but not too much because it will become too starchy. Stir only until the rice is evenly seasoned.
- Add the jujubes, chestnuts and pine nuts. Fold them into the rice.
- Put everything back in the pressure cooker and if you have a ‘steam’ option, steam for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a ‘steam’ option, just choose the shortest rice cook time and cook it again.
- You are ready to serve Yaksik now (or later). Fill a 8×8 cake pan with the Yaksik and let it cool. Once it’s cool to touch, cover it to keep it from drying. Cut it into small squares or 2/3 in thick slices and serve. You can also spoon them into cupcake cups or ramekins. Again, when it’s cooled, cover with some plastic wrap.
Tips & Notes:
- Some recipes add caramel sauce instead of honey. My sister #1 actually adds about 2 T of molasses instead of honey.
- Sister #1 also likes to add other dried fruits (apricots, raisins) and I think that’s a great way to add more fiber to the dish.
I made this today for the first time and came out great! What would be the best way to store these? Do they freeze well? With 4 cups of rice, it’s quite a lot.
Sure – you can wrap them up tightly and freeze them. They freeze really well as long as you make sure they don’t dry up. Reheat in the microwave (covered) or steam them. So glad you like it. Enjoy!
What if the bottom is harder when it’s done. After the 20 min of steaming?
So did you steam the rice? or cook the rice in the rice cooker? Rice should not be harder.. was it fully soaked? Or if you really did steam, your steaming may not have worked well..sorry, I need more details to help you further since I’m not even sure if you followed my recipe or someone else? Since this recipe doesn’t talk about steaming.
Is it possible to make this without a steam cooker? This sounds really good, but I don’t have a steam cooker home.
You can make this in the rice cooker, pressure cooker or by steaming in your pot. If you have a pot and a steamer, that’s actually the traditional way but it takes hours to steam sweet rice. Another way (although I have not made it for years) is to cook in the microwave. Cook soaked sweet rice in microwave (covered) for 6 minutes or so and then add seasoning, mix and then cook in microwave again for 4~5 minutes. Let me know which method you try and how it turns out. Good luck!
Hey, JinJoo!
I made some yaksik last night using brown rice and sugar free syrup. I cooked the rice until the water was gone, then added the syrup, sesame oil and soy sauce.
The end result was sticky and the rice had a chewy texture. It was sort of solid, but you could use a spoon to cut through it.
All in all, I like the way it turned out. Next time though I think I’ll use brown sugar instead.
PS, I cooked the rice in a conventional pot instead of a steamer.
Awesome!
That’s great! Glad it turned out good. Thanks so much for sharing your experience – always so interesting to hear different variations.
What do you mean when you say sweet rice?
It’s also called Glutinous rice, sticky rice, waxy rice. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinous_rice). You can also see a comparison in my https://kimchimari.com/joomukbap/ post. You should be able to buy it online or at any Asian market should have it. Good luck and thanks for asking!
Hi! I really want to try this recipe, but I have one question: Is it okay to use regular dates (like the baking kind that’s in big tubs) instead of jujubes? They definitely aren’t dry like jujubes but I dont know what the difference in taste is since I’ve never had a jujube before…thank you for posting this recipe, I’ve been lookig for a yummy looking yaksik recipe for a while and this one looks delish~ ^^
Hi! I have not tried using regular dates but I don’t see why not. You will just not have the flavor and aroma of jujubes but it shouldn’t be too bad. The dates may also get a bit too mushy (since jujubes are dried) so I would recommend that you just stir it in at the end. Dates sold in the markets are usually sugared so it’s a lot sweeter than the jujubes so you may want to add less than more when adding them. I would love to hear from you how they turn out~ good luck! Thanks for asking!