14 Apr, 2008
Dango Digest: A Thorough Look at Japanese Dumplings, Part Two
Posted by: Rachel In: Japanese Recipes
In Dango Digest, Part One, we got acquainted with the vast world of dango. In the second part of Dango Digest, let’s take a peek at how to actually make the dango. Part Two has two basic recipes for dango, some sauces, plus two “rare” dango recipes: Hanami Dango and Botchan Dango.
This recipe is the easiest dango to make. It’s simple, uses the least ingredients and can be used in soups or as a dessert.
Easy Dango
- 1 cup mochiko
- 1/4 boiling water
Fill a medium size saucepan with water and set it to boil.
Slowly add a small amount of the boiling water to the mochiko and carefully knead the mochiko dough together with your hands. Keep slowly adding the water until the dough is the consistency of an earlobe. Form the dough into small balls and add them to the boiling water. If using the dango in soup, add them to the simmering soup.
Cook the dango for 8 minutes or until they float to the surface. If making the dango in water, use a slotted spoon to remove the dango and then toast ‘em or top them with your choice of sauces.
Makes 10 dumplings
Difficulty: Easy | Time: 15 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Moderate
This basic dango recipe is a cinch to make if you have mochiko and joshinko. I find this particular combination of mochiko (glutinous rice flour) and joshinko (non-glutinous rice flour) yields dango with just the right amount of gooieness to chew on and enough firmness for the dango to hold their shape. These dango can be topped with a wide variety of sauces, from mocha to mitarashi. Use these blank slates as tasty canvases for your dango experimentation!
Basic Dango
- 1 cup mochiko
- 2 Tbls. joshinko
- 1/3 cup boiling water
Whisk together the rice flours till they’re well blended.
Slowly add the boiling water a little at a time to the flours, mix it as much as possible with a fork and then knead it with your hands, being careful not to burn yourself. *Note: Thoroughly mixing the mochiko and the water together with a fork or spoon does not work, and will give zero indication as to whether the correct amount of water is being added.
Slowly add more water until the dough is “soft as an earlobe”.
Form the dango into 1 inch balls and place them 1/2 inch apart on a lightly greased steamer tray. Steam on high for 7 minutes. Let the dango cool and thread 3-4 dango onto a skewer.
Either serve immediately or toast the dango. To toast the dango, heat an oven to broil and place the skewered dango in the pre-heated oven. Keep a close eye on the dango and remove them once they’re a golden brown. Top them with sauces and serve hot.
Makes 6-8 skewers
Difficulty: Easy | Time: 20 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Moderate
Here’s a popular dumpling recipe made using basic dango topped with a sweet soy-based sauce.
Mitarashi Dango
- 1 recipe Basic Dango
- 1/2 cup light soy sauce (dark may be used as well)
- 4 Tbls. mirin
- 4 Tbls. dashi stock
- 1/2 cup white or brown sugar
- 1 Tbls. katakuriko (potato starch) or cornstarch, (optional)
Make the dango as per the Basic Dango recipe. While dango are steaming, make the sauce.
Make the sauce by mixing the the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar together in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer for two minutes until the sugar dissolves. You may thicken the sauce by reducing it, but the mitrashi may caramelize. This method produces an intense flavor and a very shiny mitarashi.
If reducing isn’t your preferential way of thickening, then dissolve the starch in a tablespoon of water. Add the starch water to the simmering sauce and stir it in quickly. Cook and stir the sauce over low heat until the sauce thickens to your taste. Set aside.
Toast the steamed dango and top them with the mitarashi sauce. Serve immediately.
Makes 8 skewers
Difficulty: Easy | Time: 25 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Moderate
This dango is a seasonal wagashi eaten during the cherry blossom season. Enjoy hanami dango on your next nature outing and savor a bit of hanami in your own picnic basket!
Hanami Dango
The recipe is off site in my article for Sauce’s March issue. Check it out on the right sidebar!
- Note: After the dango are steamed, the green dango (yomogi or matcha) will start to turn a very dark green, and in the case of yomogi, almost black. This is perfectly normal, but doesn’t look too appealing after an hour or so. To cut back on the oxidation process, use less yomogi or switch to matcha. Use less matcha for a pastel mint color. But less matcha also means less flavor so if you’re keen on green tea and are presenting the dango to friends, try and serve the dango straight from the steamer, or keep them warm till they’re ready to be eaten to delay the oxidation.
Makes 10 skewers
Difficulty: Moderate | Time: 1 hour | Ingredient Availability: Difficult
I was inspired to create a recipe for this famous dango by the many fans who were curious about it. Botchan dango is a regional dango from Matsuyama which was made famous by Soseki Natsume’s novel, “Botchan“. This dango is a sanshoku dango (three colored dango) made from bean paste (an), egg yolk (kimi) and green tea powder (matcha) and filled with white bean paste (shiro an). I used a microwave to help make the recipe, but you can also heat the ingredients on a stove top. This is a difficult recipe but well worth the effort!
Botchan Dango
Filling
- 1/2 cup shiro an
- 1 Tbls. mochiko
An Dango
- 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbls. mochiko
- 1 Tbls. joshinko
- 1/4 cup anko (tsubu or koshi)
- 2 Tbls. sugar
- scant amount hot water
Kimi Dango
- 2 egg yolks, beaten
- 2 Tbls. boiling water
- 2 Tbls. sugar
- 1/4 cup plus Tbls. mochiko
- 2 Tbls. sugar
- scant amount hot water
Matcha Dango
- 1 tsp. matcha
- 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbls. mochiko
- 3 Tbls. joshinko
- 3 Tbls. sugar
- 1 1/2 tbls. water
- scant amount hot water
- sugar water for smoothing
Make the filling by mixing together the shiro an and the mochiko. Spread the shiro an mixture onto a clean cotton cloth and steam it on high for 10 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool and form the dough into 18 equal sized balls. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and set them aside.
An
Make the an dango by mixing together the mochiko and joshinko and set aside.
Mix together the sugar and anko and heat the mix until it starts to bubble, about 30 seconds in the microwave.
Add the hot anko to the flours and knead it in well. Depending on evaporation and type of anko used, you may have to add some water to make the dough more pliable. Add hot water a few drops at a time to the dough until it’s soft enough to easily form into balls. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside.
Kimi
Make the kimi dango by whisking together the mochiko and joshinko and set aside.
Add the sugar to the boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add the egg yolks to the hot sugar water and heat until the mixture thickens. In the microwave, heat the egg mix for 5 second intervals, then stir it well. Heat then stir. Repeat. The mixture should be a creamy yellow, slightly thick and frothy.
Add the cooked yolks to the flours. Knead the mixture well, and add enough water to create a supple, but not sticky, dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside.
Matcha
Make the matcha dango by whisking the flours and matcha together.
Dissolve the sugar in the water and heat until it barely boils, about 30 seconds in the microwave. Add the boiling sugar water to the flours and carefully knead the dough well, adding enough water to make a supple dough .
Assembling the Botchan Dango
Divide the an dough into 6 equal size balls. Cover them to prevent drying and repeat with the kimi and matcha doughs. There should be 18 balls in total; 6 an, 6 kimi and 6 matcha.
Take a ball of the an dough and flatten it in a slightly dampened, clean palm. Place a ball of shiro an dough in the center of the an round and carefully cover the shiro an with the an dough. Do not overstretch the dough. Make sure it’s an even thickness throughout. Smooth the ball, using a dab of sugar water if needed.
Repeat with the rest of the an dough. Cover to prevent drying and repeat with the kimi and an balls.
Skewer the finished balls in order of an, kimi and matcha. Steam on high for 10-12 minutes. Serve immediately.
Makes 6 skewers
Difficulty: Difficult | Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Difficult
I love malted milk balls and I love dango. My insane desire to see the two merged was what fired the ol’ noogin to craft this recipe. It’s a great example of how creative you can be with dango!
Inside Out Malted Milk Dango
- 3/4 cup mochiko
- 3 Tbls. joshinko
- 3 Tbls. baking cocoa
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 Tbls. instant milk powder
- 1/4 boiling water
- 1/4 cup malt powder (not malted milk*)
- 3 Tbls. sugar
- 1/4 water
Mix together the mochiko, joshinko, cocoa and dry milk.
Add the sugar to the boiling water and stir to dissolve it. Slowly add the hot sugar water to the dry ingredients a little at a time. Knead the dough and add more water as necessary to create a supple, but not mushy, dough.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. Place the balls 1/2 apart on a steam tray and steam them on high for 7 minutes.
While the balls are cooling, make the sauce by mixing together the malt, sugar and water. Heat the mixture on low heat, stirring constantly. Let the sauce reduce to desired thickness and set aside.
Skewer the chocolate dango, three per stick. Top the dango with the malt sauce and serve immediately.
Makes 7 skewers.
Difficulty: Moderate | Time: 30 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Moderate
*I used malt flour, which is malt powder without the added milk or sugar. Malted milk powder, which already contains sugar plus milk and is readily available at supermarkets, may be used. Omit the sugar and cook till thickened to your taste.
Awesome, last night I made a coffee dongo using instant coffee in the dango dough, then made a sweet vanilla cream sauce using heavy whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract and a little bit of cornstarch. I came out pretty good, but the sauce tasted like a vanilla pudding XD
I picked up some frozen mitarishi(sp?) dango yesterday from Asia Market in Creve Coeur. Hopefully it’ll taste as good as the ones I bought on a layover in Nagoya.
I didn’t look up recipes until tonight and therefore didn’t know to look for the rice flour. Where do you get yours?
Oh, I also found this cute Clannad Ed Dango Daikazoku video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfO7QctjKO4
@Cliff, it almost sounds like you made cappuccino dango. Way to go! Maybe leave out the starch for a less pudding texture and just reduce it? Or add some hazelnut flavor to the sauce for a less pudding flavor.
@Annie, I LOVE Asia Market! I buy sanma there and broil it shioyaki style. Soooo good! You can totally get your mochiko there too! They sell it by the three pound bag for around $5. Go down the aisle where all the bags of various powders and flour are. Grab the bag that’s got green lettering on it and is labeled “Sweet Rice Flour”. That’s mochiko. Don’t bother asking the staff if it’s the same as mochiko, though. I did that and they said no, mochiko is over here. It was a minor miscommunication. I bought it anyway and found out it is indeed mochiko. You can also buy azuki beans for dirt cheap there too and make your own anko. Did I mention I LOVE Asia Market?
Wow cool they look delicious…I’d love to try them but I don’t cook much (maybe my boyfriend will make them for me though!). p.s. I was reading through the polls section, there are some really good discussions there!
@susieq, lucky you to have a man who cooks! Have him make you some strawberry-topped dango. They’re almost in season!
I have tried your Mitarashi recipe before you posted it (found on a different site) and its soo fishy with all the dashi in it XP
The one I use is just shoyu, and brownsugar…what do you think of the dashi mitarashi?
@Cliff, the dashi adds an interesting note, I must say. I’m not averse to the dashi sauce, but I can see where some people may find it unappealing.
@Rachel, will definitely pick some up the next time I’m up there. I’m not a fan of azuki beans though, Koreans eat it with their icecream too and as kid I’d eat it, but I still never liked it very much.
I was looking through your other dango recipes, I will try making some of your natsu furutsu dango.
I tried makeing mochi batter from a recipie from another site first. It was for Ice cream mochi. if any one has seen this recipie don’t use sorbet ice cream…. melts too quickly. and the dough was not what I thought It should be. I think it needed more mochiko >.< I’ll try the thingys latter thier in the frezer
@fallen_angel_of_god, the secret to making mochi ice cream is super cold ice cream and a mochi dough that isn’t chewy. I’m going to work on that this summer….
lol. I made the hanamidango. although they didn’t want to keep their shape I think I had too much water. it was really wattery >..<
I coulden’t find food coloring so I used strawberry jam came out perfect <3 my mom loves it.
Thanks for this great page and all the information! I made some of the simple dango balls and smeared them with some homemade anko . . . super yummy! Brought me right back to Japan in one bite. The only suggestions I have are that you might want to include coating the dango in more mochiko/cornstarch/whatever before working with them- I started skewering them and instantly realized I’d need to dust them first. Oh, and how would you suggest toasting them?
Also- how long can I keep them in my refrigerator, would you say?
@kat, it could be that there was too much water or that the dough wasn’t cooked long enough. Good use of strawberry jam!
@Candy, hooray homemade anko! I don’t think I’ve had problems with the dango sticking. I usually wait till they’re room temperature before getting my eager grubby mitts on ‘em. But the extra starch is a fantastic idea.
For toasting dango, I use a small convection oven. However, toasting the dango with the kitchen oven’s broiling setting under the fire/ electric glow will do the trick too. Although you’ll be heating up the house like mad when you do so. Or, how’s about you try grilling them outside? Seriously, it’s how dango have been traditionally toasted. Try it on your next grill out, but make sure you clean the grill and oil it. Hamburger dango is icky.
Funny story, true story: I made dango for a get together, but never served it, It stayed in the fridge and was slowly eaten over the course of four days. However, two weeks later, in a frenzy of a snack attack, I discovered some more dango in the crisper drawer. Not being especially picky, I broiled it up, dumped a load of goma an over them and enjoyed. Apparently they were still good since I’m still here. So in short- two weeks, maybe more depending on your fridge.
I tried makeing hanami again. most of them “melted” off the stick the few that stayed are perfect. especially my strawberry jam ones (which I increased the amount of jam, it was sugar-less by the way) tried their hardest to stay on the bamboo stick. I used only half a cup of water for them and they seemed to be okay before I cooked each portion in the pot and I even re cooked them after they cooled (they did not feel as soft as an earlobe >.<).
Atlest they taste great and are close to actual hanami dango <3 Any suggestions for my third try down the road?
@kat, so you did steam them after you cooked them? Did you let the dough cool completely before you formed the balls? Did you add enough cornstarch? Did you you use equal parts joshinko and mochiko? If joshinko (non-glutinous rice flour) wasn’t used, that may be the problem.
I did steam them. I think they needed to cool more possibly. they were slightly warm. I added the full amount (1/2 cup of corn starch) the only joshinko I could find was a non glutinous kind at the grochery store I assumed that was close enough, it was in the bakeing isle. it seemed okay. I looked at them this after noon and only one ball looks fine the rest are a mess. I found a place locally that has mochiko so I can try again a few times (bought two boxes this time ^ ^”)
@kat, well, I’m officially stumped. I too bought my “joshinko” as regular ol’ rice flour. I’ve made this recipe so many times I can repeat it in my sleep, but I’m absolutely flummoxed as to how to solve the issue…Hmmm, did you cook it long enough? Because when I was first making this recipe, I didn’t cook it long enough and the balls were really goopy. The dough has to be really firm in the saucepan. It should be one solid mass that balls up when you stir it. It should be a physical chore to stir it when it’s done.
Then there’s the question of if your hands are too wet when you make the balls. I had my hands too wet once when I made the dough and the balls were really wet. If this batch doesn’t work out, I’m going to say that the non-glutinous rice flour may be the issue. What’s the name and brand on the rice flour?
I’d hate for you to go out and buy more rice flour, but if the place you bought your mochiko also sells rice flour, try and buy a small bag and see how that fares. For your next batch, halve the recipe so you won’t potentially waste more flour and remember to really cook out that moisture!
Thank you I think I’ll try it again. I think it was the cooking of the dough part which was not as complete as I first thought. The brand of my rice flour is “bob’s red mill”. third time’s the charm wish me luck ^ ^
Your easy dango recipe sort of reminds me of the Filipino Palitaw, and the basic dango reminds me of Filipino sticky cake (not anything like the chinese sticky cake), but we boil/steam them when they’re flat, not ballish, and we serve them with fresh or toasted coconut (and some other things). One of my friends let me try a dango that they bought at the store, and when I said it tasted like sticky cake, they got mad at me and scolded me… I guess if I show them the recipes I can scold them back.
I made hanami today and they are perfect. No problems expect when takeing them out of my steamer basket. I just need to grease it a bit and they will be fine
thank you ^ ^
@TwiRp, I think a lot of Asian desserts have a similar base in the sweet rice flour. Glutinous rice desserts are sticky so you’re no doubt right when you say dango and sticky cake taste alike.
@kat, Huzzah! Third times a charm indeed! Whew, I’m happy they turned out!
Wow what a great site! and OMG these dango pics make me SOO hungry!!!! if i can get ahold of the ingredents I will certanily make a TON and pig out! YAY! -_- but liveing in this tiny town reily sucks all we have here is Wal mart…. so God bless online shoppin!!!! keep up the great wotk!!!
@Celena, thanks! Yes, god bless online shopping indeed!! When you make your dango, tell me how you like them if it’s your first time eating them.
I REALLY love anko, and I’d like to make some an dango. However, I can’t get my hands on any joshinko(meaning I can’t get it locally and don’t have means to order online. I’m just a kid :-P). I have mochiko–can I make it work with just that? (i.e. with the easy dango recipe?)
@Jillian, joshinko is just non-glutinous rice flour, aka, rice flour. I get mine at the international store in the Indian goods section. It’s also available in a Bob’s Red Mills brand (available in most grocery stores) and in health food stores. Good luck, I know you’ll find it!
[...] foods. Okonomiyaki turns up in Tsubasa, takoyaki has made an appearance in The Wallflower and dango is everywhere you look, most notably in Sailor Moon. Taiyaki is not only in anime (most recently [...]
Okay, I’ve read all through this blog and see some awesome recipes….just one question, though:
Joshinko. I don’t have it, and I don’t have a way to get it (no credit card/debit card/etc.) and no job (I’m only 15, darnit!). I’m not sure if my mom is willing to shell out money for my “weird food”, as she calls it. Plus, we don’t have any international markets in my town, only the international foods aisle, which, as far as I know, only sells Mochiko, which is all I have as far as rice flour is concerned.
Is Joshinko an absolute must, or can it be substituted with something else?
@Sarah, joshinko is plain ol’ rice flour, as you know. If you have a food processor, perhaps you could try powdering some sushi rice in it. I’ve read how other people who are hard up for rice flour use this method.
Ohhh these look so good! Especially the inside-out malted milk Dango!
I really need to try and make this sometime. (As soon as I figure out what all of the ingredients are in english… haha)
DO you think that the malted milk dango would be too difficult for someone unexperienced with making Dango? (I am familiar with cooking though)
Oh and one last question! >.<
I live in Southern California and I was wondering where is a good place to get these ingredients.
@Erik, yes, make dango, make lots and lots of dango!!
Mochiko is glutinous rice flour. Joshinko is non-glutinous rice flour. Mirin is a sweetened cooking wine made from rice. Dashi is a seaweed and skipjack tuna stock.
Erik, you lucky duck, you live in SoCal, you shouldn’t have too tough a time getting your J-cuisine ingredient hook-up! Go to the Mitsuwa in Little Tokyo or to any Korean or Japanese grocery for any of these ingredients.