Korean Sweet Rice Cake Bars (LA Chapssalteok)
These sticky Korean sweet rice cake bars (chapssaltteok) are originated from Korean immigrants in Los Angeles, California. You don’t need butter or oil, but still creates crispy and chewy bars. Loaded with nuts and seeds, these bars make a perfect gluten-free snack!
Baked goodies with NO flour and NO butter or oil.., Would it be possible? These Korean style sweet rice cake bars, known as chapssaltteok, make it possible.
They originated from the Koreans living in Los Angeles, California many years ago. Their craving of traditional Korean sweet rice dessert, which sometimes is hard to achieve in a home kitchen, turned this bars more like ‘east meets west’ version of rice cakes.
There is no wheat flour nor any butter or oil in the recipe, but still creates crisp texture on the outside and chewy (almost mochi-like) inside.
The filling can be adapted to any choice of nuts, seeds and dried fruits for your liking. You can adjust the amount of sugar depends on the sweetness you desire. That makes this bars great for snacks, quick breakfast, and even a dessert.
The best part? You can whip the batch in less than 10 minutes before you put in the oven to bake. This is another gently sweet chapssaltteok version.
Choice of Nuts and Seeds
Here are my chosen plant based filling. Walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, raisins, almonds and pistachios. Use any nuts, edible seeds, and dried fruits. You can throw some chocolate chips if you like.
Coarsely chop your nuts.
How to make LA Style Sweet Rice Cake Bars
In a large bowl, mix rice flower, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. I only used 1-1/2 cup of brown sugar for 3 cups of rice flower. It gave very subtle sweetness. If you prefer sweeter treat, add more sugar as you desire.
Mix well with a whisk.
Pour milk to the flour mixture, and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix well to combine everything. It will be a thin batter.
UPDATE: If using Mochiko flour instead of sweet rice flour, you will need more milk to get the right consistency. Increase the amount of milk to 3 cups.
Add your chopped nuts…
Seeds and dried fruits, and other wonders of nature if you like. Mix well.
Pour on a well greased 9×13 pan.
Make sure you even out the nutty goodness. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 30-35 minutes.
Voila! You’ve got a cake or bars. Make sure to cool down completely before you cut.
Here is the finished product. Let’s pay a moment of adoration…
Cut into any size bars you desire. I like my bars long and skinny.
Wrap these bars with plastic wrap and they will keep fresh for a few days. They can be stored in the freezer for a couple of month.
They will be my breakfast, afternoon snack, and midnight munch for the next few days. And I am very happy about that.
My family and I had a wonderful trip to Penang, Malaysia and Bali, Indonsia over the holidays. I will try to post some pictures soon to share with you. I had a great time and the ‘FOOD’ was just amazing in both places.
Hope all of you had a great season with your family and friends over a scrumptious feast. And I wish you a very very Happy New Year!
Other Korean Sweet Treats
Korean Sweet Rice Cake Bars (LA Chapssalteok)
Ingredients
- 3 cup sweet rice flour (chapssal-garu), See note below
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup walnuts , coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup pecan , coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup almond , coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup raisins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF
- In a large bowl whisk together rice flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pour milk and vanilla and stir to mix well.
- Add the assorted nuts, sunflower seeds and raisins. Mix well.
- Pour the batter over well greased 9×13 inch pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top gets brown and crisp.
- Cool completely and cut into bars. Wrap leftover bars with plastic wrap and store in the freezer.
They tasted fantastic, will definitely be making these again.
I did encounter one issue though, all my nuts rose to the top rather than being evenly incorporated throughout the mixture? If it makes any difference I uses glutinous rice flour the 3 cups of milk. How do I fix this issue for next time? Thanks!
Unfortunately, due to the heaviness of rice flour, the nuts tend to rise to the top, but that’s still better than having them sink to the bottom!
Holly
Does it make a difference what kind of milk you use: skim v whole v 2%? What do you prefer to use?
Thank you
Hi Beatrice
I personally prefer using whole milk for a richer taste, but low-fat milk will work as well.
Just made it and love them.
Thank you! I’m so happy to hear that you loved them. Enjoy every chewy bite!
Hi, just want to clarify. If I am using Mochiko flour, then I have to use 3 to 3.5 cup of milk?
Hi, If using mochiko flour, use 1:1 ratio with milk first. If the batter seems too thick, add a little more milk as you go. Hope you succeed. Thanks.
what can i substitute for milk? have a daughter in law on dairy free diet.
Thanks
I made this with what I had in the pantry, i.e. pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, golden raisins, and it was very good! I will go purchase different types of nuts and make more, in fact.
I just made these and they are soooo good! I used coconut sugar since I was out of brown sugar. I also used ground up walnuts (almost like nut meal) because I accidentally over crushed my walnuts and it still came out delicious. Also used mochiko flour and used 3 cups of milk as suggested in the recipe and it came out perfect! This is such a great recipe, thank you! I will definitely make it on a regular basis.
Hello, I made the rice bar but only the top came out nice and crispy as yours. The bottom however, remains so sticky that I had problem getting the rice cakes out of the tray after baking. Please advise what went wrong? Taste wise, it’s delicious!
Did you grease the pan before you add the batter? This bar will have crispy crust but sticky inside.
Hi Holly, yes I greased the pan with oil before pouring in the batter. But no crust was formed at all on the bottom and side. I had to scrape the pan to get the rice cake out.
I wonder if the batter was too loose. Depends on the type of sweet rice flour, some needs less liquid. Next time you make it, try less amount of milk.
Ok, I’ll add less milk next time I try this again. Tks!
Hi Holly! I made this the other day and I absolutely loved it. I reduced the sugar to 1 cup because I used sweetened almond milk and the sweetness was perfect for me. I also used diced apricots instead of sultanas.
I froze the majority of them because I’ll be taking them with me to work for the next couple of weeks but I’m finding that as they defrost, the moisture makes it lose that lovely crispiness they have when they come out of the oven. Is there anything I can do to prevent this? Do they keep in the fridge or does that make them soggy as well?
Hi Barbara
Glad to hear that you love this bar recipe.
In order to answer your question regarding sogginess of the bar after freezing, did you individually wrap them tightly with plastic wrap? With any baking goods, it is always crispier when freshly baked. Once it has frozen and thawed, it looses its fresh crispness a little due to the moisture in the freezer. In order to minimize that you will need to wrap them individually very tight with plastic wrap, then store in another airtight container or ziplock bag.
Another way to help to restore the crispness is to reheat in the oven for a few minutes. But that might not be so convenient for you if you have to take them with you.