Seasonal Flavors: Mugwort, Pumpkin, and Yuja Tteok

Ssuk-tteok (spring): fold blanched, squeezed mugwort at 4% flour weight into dough with 10g extra sugar; steam 25 minutes. Serve warm with honey for contrast — the herb is assertive and needs sweetness to frame it, not mask it.

Pumpkin-tteok (autumn): roast kabocha, mash, and substitute 25% of rice flour weight with pumpkin puree; reduce water by 15% because pumpkin brings moisture. Add pine nuts on top for crunch; the cake eats custardy and needs a 5-minute rest before cutting so it does not smear.

Yuja-tteok (winter): candied yuja peel folded into baekseolgi batter offers bitter rind, sweet juice sacs, and perfume that survives steaming. Mince peel finely so it distributes rather than clumping as bitter pockets; reduce sugar by one spoon since yuja-cheong is already sweet.

Rotation logic mirrors produce: ssuk in April, pumpkin in September–November, yuja in December–February. Shops that rotate signal seasonality and justify slightly taller pricing for short-window flavors.

Storage varies: pumpkin tteok stales fastest due to extra moisture — freeze after 12 hours if not eaten; ssuk and yuja hold 24 hours lidded better. Label by flavor so freezers remain legible.