Strawberry Tteok

A modern Korean confection that bridges traditional tteok-making with contemporary café culture: fresh strawberries encased in pink-tinted sweet rice dough, filled with sweet bean paste, delicate and jewel-bright

Origin: South Korea (contemporary, popularised 2000s–2010s)

From the journey of Strawberry.

Tteok (떡), Korean rice cake, is one of Korea's oldest foods, eaten at every major celebration and rite of passage. The word 'tteok' itself is ancient. Traditional tteok were made from rice flour steamed or pounded into soft, dense cakes, filled with sweet red bean paste, chestnuts or sesame. The strawberry tteok is a modern adaptation; part of the explosion of Korean dessert culture in the 2000s and 2010s that brought international attention to Korean café food. Similar in concept to Japan's ichigo daifuku, the Korean version typically uses a slightly firmer rice cake dough and wraps the strawberry in both bean paste and tteok. In winter, when Korea's prized Seolhyang (설향) and Maehyang (매향) strawberry varieties are in the shops; large, intensely sweet, with a hint of pineapple; strawberry tteok appears in every tteok specialist shop and department store confectionery floor as a seasonal highlight.

Ingredients

Filling

  • 8 small to medium ripe strawberries, hulled
  • 160 g sweet red bean paste (danpatso) or white bean paste

Tteok dough

  • 200 g glutinous rice flour (chapssal-garu)
  • 30 g caster sugar
  • 180 ml warm water
  • drops natural pink or red food colouring (optional, for pink tteok)

Dusting

  • Cornflour for dusting

Coating

  • 2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder (optional, for coating)

Method

  1. Divide the bean paste into 8 portions of about 20g each. Flatten each portion in your palm and wrap it around a hulled strawberry, encasing it completely with the tip pointing upward. Set aside in the refrigerator.
  2. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the glutinous rice flour, sugar and warm water with the food colouring (if using). Mix until a smooth, thick batter forms.
  3. Cover loosely and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir with a wet spatula. Microwave for another 1 minute. Stir again. The dough should be translucent, very sticky and elastic; almost like thick putty.
  4. Dust a work surface generously with cornflour. Turn out the hot tteok dough and dust the top. Knead briefly, just 4–5 folds, while still warm. Divide into 8 equal portions.
  5. Flatten each tteok portion into a disc about 8–9cm in diameter. Place a bean-paste-wrapped strawberry in the centre (strawberry tip pointing up). Wrap the tteok around the bean paste, pinching firmly at the base to seal.
  6. Lightly dust the finished tteok to remove excess cornflour. If using freeze-dried strawberry powder, roll each tteok briefly in the powder for a beautiful pink coating that intensifies the strawberry flavour.
  7. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Bring to room temperature for 10 minutes before eating; cold tteok is harder and less enjoyable than slightly-warm tteok.

Notes

The glutinous rice flour must be chapssal-garu (Korean sweet rice flour) or mochiko (Japanese sweet rice flour); regular rice flour will not produce the characteristic elastic, chewy texture. The two are interchangeable in this recipe. Freeze-dried strawberry powder (available from Korean or Japanese supermarkets and baking suppliers) is an excellent and highly recommended coating; it intensifies both the colour and strawberry flavour dramatically.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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