What makes this dish so special?
What I love the most about the Tteokbokki semifreddo:
- It’s a genius dessert! Tteokbokki shaped semifreddo that is actually made of tteok (Korean rice cakes)? That’s creative!
- The colours are so pretty – the white rice cakes, red gochujang caramel and green herbs make this dessert standout.
- It’s a light dessert – the semifreddo is light and fluffy, and not too sweet!
This recipe starts with boiling tteok in water, also known as Korean rice cakes.
Korean rice cakes have a chewy and bouncy texture. If you don’t boil it, it’ll be quite hard to work with.
After boiling the rice cakes, you will need to blend the softened rice cakes with the hot water to create a slurry.
The texture should be thick and gloopy, but not too thick. I’d suggest adding little bit of water to start with, and you can always adjust the consistency by adding more water.
Traditional semifreddo uses raw eggs. However, if you’re also afraid of consuming raw egg, you can use my recipe which uses condensed milk and greek yoghurt instead.
To create the tteokbokki moulds, I used baking paper with pegs.
I rolled out the baking paper into cylinders, and then pegged it. At first, I used sticky tape, but as you might know..baking paper is non-stick! So tape will not work on baking paper!
One of the biggest challenges of this recipe is making the gochujang caramel.
My caramel seized too many times because of temperature differences between the sugar syrup and cold heavy cream. So don’t make the same mistake as me!
Be sure to assemble this dessert quickly! The semifreddo does melt a little so I’d recommend working fast when serving.
Tteokbokki Semifreddo
Ingredients
Method
- In a saucepan, combine rice cakes and water and let it gently boil until the rice cakes are soft.
- Remove from heat, let it cool down for 5 mins.
- Remove rice cakes and add to a blender.
- Add 1 cup of the remaining water to a blender.
- Blend until it becomes a slurry.
- Push through the paste through a sieve to achieve a smooth texture.
- Whip the chilled heavy cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.
- Mix in sweetened condensed milk and greek yoghurt.
- Cut baking paper into rectangles and roll into a cylinder, secure it into shape with sticky tape and a peg.
- Add the mixture into a piping bag, then pipe into the prepared baking paper cylinders.
- Freeze for 3+ hours or until it has set.
- In a pan, add gochujang and heavy cream then mix on low heat until well combined.
- In a separate saucepan, combine sugar and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring gently until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring.
- Let the mixture simmer undisturbed until it turns into a deep amber coluor (about 5-8 minutes)
- Add the gochujang cream mixture in a slow stream while stirring.
- On a plate, splatter gochujang caramel sauce in the middle
- Scatter a few pieces of the rice cake semifreddo
- Garnish with microherbs and anything else you like!
