sweet rice cake

New Year Sweet Rice Cake (红糖年糕), or nian gao, is a welcome sight during Chinese New Year and a must-have dish. Nian gao 年糕（高) symbolizes progress, advancement, and growth.Nian Gao is also a popular gift to give when visiting family and friends during the holiday.

Chinese New Year Sweet Rice Cake (Nian Gao)

vegetable oil

ginger

dark brown sugar (or brown rock sugar )

allspice powder

glutinous rice flour

rice flour ((about half a bag))

vanilla extract

dark molasses

orange

dates ((for decoration, optional))

Prepare two 8-inch round baking pans by brushing the insides with vegetable oil.

Add 2 cups of water and the ginger to a medium-sized pot, bring it a boil, then let it simmer for 10 minutes over low to medium heat with the lid covered. Turn off the heat, and stir in the brown sugar and allspice until the sugar is dissolved completely. Remove the ginger slices. Now add 1 1/2 cups of cold water to cool down the mixture so its warm, not hot.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the two kinds of flours together and then slowly add in the sugar water mixture. Stir thoroughly until the batter is smooth (without any lumps). Now stir in the vanilla extract, molasses, orange zest, and 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil until thoroughly combined. The resulting batter should have a consistency similar to condensed milk. If the batter is too thick, add a bit more water a couple tablespoons at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Pour the batter evenly into two foil pans. Gently tap the pans against your countertop to get rid of air bubbles. Top each pan with three decorative dates in the center, if using. Put both pans in a double-decker bamboo steamer and steam for about 1 hour on high heat (the water should be boiling, but should NOT be bubbling high enough to touch the foil pans). You might need to add water into the steamer midway to avoid having the water dry up and burn your bamboo steamers.

After 1 hour, poke a toothpick into the rice cake. It’s done if the toothpick comes out clean--just like a regular cake! Regarding steaming techniques, for this recipe and in general, it doesn’t matter what type of vessel you use. The core goal here is to use steam to cook the food, which means it's important that the steam doesn't escape.

For example, if you use bamboo steamer, you will also need a pot that fits the bamboo steamer perfectly so there is no visible steam escaping. If you don’t have a pot that fits the bamboo steamer, you will need to put the bamboo steamer inside a much larger pot with a lid and set the bamboo steamer on a rack above the water. Whatever you decide to use, with the correct set up, you should not see steam escaping!

Korean sweet rice dessert cooked with sweet rice, jujube, chestnut, and other nuts in instant pot makes this authentic recipe extremely easy and quick to prepare. It also serves as a good breakfast or snack.

Korean Sweet Rice Dessert (Yakshik) - Instant Pot

Korean sweet rice (chapssal)

water

14-16 frozen whole chestnut (or canned (drained))

jujube

dark brown sugar (or honey)

soy sauce

tsp dark soy sauce (optional)

cinnamon

pine nuts

pumpkin seeds

tbsp sesame oil

Rinse sweet rice several times and soak the rice in water for 10 minutes. Drain the rice and set aside.

Cut the chestnut in halves or quarters depending on the size. Set them aside.

Cut the flesh off of dried jujube to separate it from the seeds. Set the flesh on the side and collect the seeds. Put the seeds in a small pot and pour in 2 cups of water. Bring it to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. The water will become dark amber. Discard the jujube seeds and reserve the stock.

Pour the jujube stock into an instant pot. Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce (if using), honey (or brown sugar), and cinnamon; stir well until combined.

Add the rice, chestnut, and jujube flesh to the stock and mix well. Close the lid and set the instant pot to a rice setting (or 12 minutes on manual setting). Make sure to seal the vent.

When cooking is done, move the vent to quick release and let the steam escape. Open the lid and add the pine nuts and pumpkin seeds (or other nuts and seeds of your choice). Drizzle sesame oil and gently toss everything well.

Grease a 9-inch squire pan (or similar in size) with sesame oil. Put the rice mixture into the pan and press down with spatula or rice scoop. Let it sit on a wired rack to cool.

When fully cooled, turn out the rice on a cutting board and cut into desired size bars. You can garnish with jujube flowers and more seeds as you wish.

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Top 2 sweet rice cake recipes from across the web

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Chinese New Year Sweet Rice Cake (N...

Korean Sweet Rice Dessert (Yakshik)...

The most viewed sweet rice cake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine