Banana tteok is a popular Korean dessert that can be enjoyed as a lightly sweet treat or a snack during teatime. This unique rice dessert combines ripe bananas with glutinous rice flour, resulting in a soft and chewy texture with natural sweetness from the bananas. It can be filled with sweet fillings such as red bean paste or nuts.
Recipe
Banana Tteok is a rice cake made with glutinous rice flour and mashed ripe bananas filled with more diced bananas.
The recipe generally involves steaming the mixture of rice flour and mashed bananas to form a stretchy dough. However, in this recipe, we will prepare the dough by mixing the ingredients to form the rice cake balls and then boiling them until they are perfectly cooked.
Step-by-step guide
Preparation time - 15 minutes
Cooking time - 10 minutes
Serves - 2
Ingredients :
2 Bananas (ripe)
100 gms Glutinous rice flour
1/2 tsp Salt
Warm water (as required)
2 slices Castella cake (store-bought)
Method
1. Peel and place one and a half bananas in a microwave-safe bowl. Break it into smaller pieces using a spoon and then microwave it for about one minute.
2. Dice the remaining half of the banana and keep it aside for the filling.
3. Mash the microwaved banana using a spoon or a fork till it’s completely lump-free. Add the glutinous rice flour and salt and mix it all well.
4. Now, add a few drizzles of the warm water and bring the dough together. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes or until the dough forms a smooth ball and is no longer sticky. Let it rest for a couple of minutes.
5. Meanwhile, take the Castella cake and cut off the crusts. Grate the remaining cake using a cheese grater.
6. Roll a small piece of the dough (20 to 25 gms) into a ball and flatten it with your hands. Place two pieces of the diced banana in the centre. Pinch the ends together to close the dough over the banana and roll it into a ball.
7. Repeat this process until all the dough is used.
8. Take some water in a deep-bottomed pan and place it over a high flame. Once the water starts to boil, drop in the dough balls. Stir them around using a spoon so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
9. Let them boil over a medium flame until the balls float. Once they rise to the surface, let them boil for another minute.
10. Turn off the flame. Remove the balls carefully from the pan and put them into an ice water bath for 2 to 3 minutes.
11. Remove the cooked balls from the ice water onto a plate and let the excess water drain.
12. Now, coat each ball with the grated cake crumbs and serve immediately.
Tips :
1. Make sure to use a completely ripened banana.
2. Do not use regular rice flour. This recipe will only work with glutinous rice flour.
3. You can use sliced bananas, instead of diced, as a filling for these rice cakes.
4. Do not add excess water to the dough. You just need enough water that helps you bind the dough together.
5. The best way to know if the rice cakes are cooked properly is when they begin to float on top of the water. Make sure to boil them for an extra minute after they start floating, to ensure they are fully cooked.
6. If you do not have Castella cake, you may use any butter cake or pound cake of your choice. You may even use shredded coconut mixed with some icing sugar to coat the rice cakes.
7. These rice cakes must be consumed within a few hours of making as they tend to go bad afterwards.
8. You can serve them with some tea or coffee.
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