Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Gangnaengi-tteok
Chewy steamed corn cakes lightly sweetened and often dotted with beans, a homely North Korean treat.
North Korean · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 30 min
~372 cal · 8g protein · 82g carbs · 3g fat · 7g fiber · 12g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Gangnaengi-tteok, corn rice cake, is a traditional Korean tteok especially associated with the northern regions and North Korea, where corn (gangnaengi in the northern dialect) has long been a dietary staple. It is homely, rustic food, the kind made from what the land provides.
Ground corn or cornmeal is mixed with a little sugar and water into a dough, sometimes dotted with sweet beans, and steamed until it turns into a dense, chewy cake with the mild sweetness of corn. Simple and satisfying, without the refinement of fancier city rice cakes, it comes from a resourceful, grain-based cuisine, and is eaten as a snack or a modest sweet.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
3 cups fine cornmeal or ground corn
1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup cooked sweet red beans
1 pinch salt
Instructions
1
Mix the corn flour and glutinous rice flour with the sugar and salt, then knead it with hot water into a thick, mouldable dough.
✎ Chef’s note
Hot water, not warm. Scalding the flour is what gelatinises the starch and lets a crumbly corn dough hold together at all.
2
Fold in the cooked sweet beans.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the glutinous rice flour; it is what binds the crumbly corn into a chewy cake rather than a dry crumble.
3
Steam until firm and cooked through, about 25 minutes, then tip the hot dough onto a board and pound it until it turns smooth, sticky and elastic before shaping.
✎ Chef’s note
The pounding after steaming is the step that makes this a tteok rather than a corn dumpling; worked hot on a board it becomes as sticky and chewy as the glutinous rice cakes of the lowlands. Rub the finished cakes with sesame oil and, traditionally, press a wooden mould into the top.
4
Shape into small rounds while the dough is still warm and serve.
✎ Chef’s note
Glutinous corn cake belongs to the Uiju and Pyoktong districts of North Phyongan, where polished rice was scarce, and it was made for holidays and weddings in place of rice tteok.
North Korean home-food tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Pyongyang. Pyongyang is the home of naengmyeon, chewy buckwheat noodles served in an icy broth with pear and mustard. Northern Korean cooking is milder and less chili-driven than the south, with dumplings, cold dishes, and pine nuts.
🗺️
North Korea. North Korean cuisine shares Korea's fermentation heritage but leans milder and more austere, cold buckwheat noodles (naengmyeon), corn and potato dishes, and hearty stews. Pyongyang's cold noodles are its most famous export.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from North Korea
Pyongyang NaengmyeonChewy buckwheat noodles in an icy, clear beef-and-radish broth, topped with pear, egg, and pickles.
OnbanA Pyongyang bowl of warm rice in chicken broth topped with shredded chicken and a mung-bean pancake.
Injo-gogi-bapSheets of soybean 'meat' stuffed with rice and topped with a spicy sauce, a resourceful North Korean street food.
Browse all North Korea recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Keeps 2 to 3 days refrigerated. Resteam or warm through gently to serve.
Make it a North Korea meal
BindaetteokDinner
SujeonggwaDrink
Similar dishes from around the world
DucanaAntigua and Barbuda
ConkiesBarbados
Nian Gao (New Year Rice Cake)China
Khao TomLaos
Koba AkondroMadagascar
Yomari (Newari Sweet Rice Dumpling)Nepal
Cuisine
Diet
Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World
Vegan Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free North Korean Recipes
Vegan Desserts from Around the World
Vegetarian Desserts from Around the World
Gluten-Free Desserts from Around the World
Dairy-Free Desserts from Around the World
Nut-Free Desserts from Around the World
Egg-Free Desserts from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Gangnaengi-tteok?
Chewy steamed corn cakes lightly sweetened and often dotted with beans, a homely North Korean treat.
Where does Gangnaengi-tteok come from?
Gangnaengi-tteok is a North Korean dish from Pyongyang, North Korea.
Can Gangnaengi-tteok be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Gangnaengi-tteok recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Gangnaengi-tteok safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Gangnaengi-tteok take to make?
About 50 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 6.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.