(English version is available down below in this post)

一直以來我都很喜歡吃年糕，不論是日式烤年糕、韓式辣炒年糕和年糕湯、又或者是台灣傳統新年會吃的年糕（甜或鹹都愛），愛那種很有嚼勁並咬到最後的米味！家裡的冰箱也隨時都有韓式年糕的存在！

前幾天聽到朋友自己做甜年糕就好奇去查了一下網路上的食譜，結果材料超簡單，只有糖、水和糯米粉，如果想要紅豆才加紅豆餡。我馬上就來做了一次，後來覺得糖份是在是太高了，所以就決定把椰棗再度拿進來實驗💙

2021的農曆新年也即將到來，或許來吃個炸年糕也不錯！已經不記得上一次吃這種傳統甜年糕是什麼時候的事了，畢竟也已經五年沒在台灣過農曆新年了，說實在也是滿懷念的，那種親朋好友聚在一起打牌和吃炸年糕以及很多年菜的時光！

一般甜年糕配方——糖：水：糯米粉＝1:1:1，所以只要把這些材料攪拌均勻再拿去蒸就可以了！非常簡單！

材料

而我推出的健康版無精緻糖甜年糕食材也超簡單：

• 去籽帝王椰棗 60克
• 水 200克
• 糯米粉 150克
• 紅豆餡（不一定要加，看個人喜好）70克

做法

1. 將水和椰棗用食物調理機或破壁機打成漿
2. 將糯米粉倒入1.中並混合均勻
3. 將紅豆餡加入並混合均勻，可依自行喜好調整份量
4. 放入事先鋪好烘焙紙的模具並蒸約20分鐘（如果是用電鍋蒸，用一杯水放置外鍋）
5. 取出後放涼

// 甜年糕可以切片用煎的，我記得我奶奶都是用炸的，我其實覺得直接吃也好吃，或者是加入甜湯中當作配量也行！
// 以上食譜也可以用比例的方式自行去增加或減少年糕的大小

紅豆餡

紅豆餡我是自己煮的（也可去超市買）：
1. 用新鮮乾紅豆（不用泡）和水1:3的比例放入鑄鐵鍋中煮約1.5小時
2. 後加入糖（依自行口味下去調整）
3. 就會變成只有少量湯的綿密紅豆餡

// 用電鍋煮也可以，但外鍋要再加入兩次水蒸（跳起來後再加一次）。

和傳統的甜年糕比起來，這個配方比較不甜，也因為我個人口味的關係，我偏好為甜的版本。如果喜歡甜一點，也可調高一些椰棗比例，但需要注意的是，如果放太多椰棗的話會讓水變得太濃稠，糯米粉就會難以攪拌均勻。但如果此時又把水的比例調高，就會影響到年糕的口感。

Rice cake is a traditional snack in Taiwan during the Lunar New Year celebration. I remember my grandma always fried the sweet rice cake for new year! It is quite nostalgic food for me. In fact, I love most of the rice cake dishes, from Korean tteokbokki (savoury and spice) to Japanese mochi (sweet). The texture is so chewy and the more you chew it, the more you can taste the pure flavour of rice itself!

It is almost the time for lunar new year this year and I noticed that it is actually very easy to make the traditional taiwanese sweet rice cake! With only 3 ingredients: water, sugar, and glutinous rice flour (with ratio 1:1:1), however, I dislike that amount of sugar get into my body. That is why I made this healthier version of rice cake, in stead of sugar, I use dates! (Yes, this wonderful fruit again)

The texture is still chewy but less sweet and healthier. I also added sweet adzuki bean paste, but I know some people can’t accept sweet beans. It is a very common flavour in Taiwan for sweet rice cake.

sweet adzuki bean paste

If you prefer to add sweet adzuki bean paste, you can either make it by yourself or by it in an Asian supermarket. I made it by myself just with fresh dry adzuki beans and water (ratio 1:3), cook it in a cast iron pot for about 1.5 hours. Add desire amount sugar afterwards. It should be a dry-ish but very soft bean paste.

This bean paste is very versatile. You can add more water for sweet adzuki bean soup, or add it on bread. I know it might sounds weird, but I grew up in a sweet beans culture. I’ve never tried savoury beans before I came to the Netherlands, and I hated it at the beginning.

How to eat the sweet rice cake

There are many ways of eating it. Traditionally, people simply deep fry it after slice the rice cake. If that is not your cup of tea, you can also grill it, or even bake it in an oven. It is edible anyway after steaming. I eat it as how it is sometimes, or add it in a sweet soup.

Eet smakelijk!