Hanami dango are dumplings made to celebrate the arrival of spring in Japan. The dumplings are often served with green tea. This hanami dango recipe shows how to make hanami dango from shiratamako.
Table of contents
What is Hanami Dango?
Hanami dango are chewy three coloured (sanshoku) dumplings on skewers, made from shiratamako, joshinko or mochiko. It is called “Hanami” which means cherry blossom viewing as hanami dango is often consumed while flower viewing in Spring. This dango is also known as sanshoku dango.
Why the Three Colours?
These three colours are used because they are said to represent peach flowers (pink) which bloom in Spring, the pure colour of snow (white), and the beauty of new growth (green). The soft pink dango color is made by adding pink or red food colouring, while green dango is made with a type of leaf called Yomogi. White dango is just made from sweet rice flour.
Ingredients
Shiratamako – is made from glutinous rice. Rice is soaked and then ground with water. Shiratamako is the dried precipitated rice flour. If you can not get shiratamako, this ingredient can be substituted with Mochiko or Joshinko.
Water – I often use silken tofu rather than just water because I think tofu adds a bouncy texture to Dango, and I prefer that “mochi mochi” texture. There are two types of tofu, and for this recipe silken tofu works better to create the smooth and bouncy texture of the Dango. Of course, if you cannot get silken tofu the water and flour ratio is 1:1.
White sugar
Pink or Red food coloring for pink dango. This ingredient can be substituted with strawberry powder or beetroot juice.
Matcha powder or yomogi (mugwort) for green dango
Where do You Get Ingredients?
Shiratamako can be purchased from Japanese grocery stores or Asian grocery stores. If there are no Japanese or Asian grocery stores near you, you can get shiratamako from online stores such as amazon. Nowadays though, you can purchase cheap glutinous rice flour from major supermarkets.
How to Make Hanami Dango?
Place the shiratamako, water or silken tofu, and sugar in a large bowl and mix well until it forms a dough.
Divide the dough into three equal portions.
Add the Matcha powder into one of the dough portions and knead until the dough turns green.
Add a couple of small drops of pink or red food colouring into one of the other dough portions and knead into the dough until it turns light pink.
Roll each ball of dough (green, pink, and white) into 6 uniform-sized balls.
Boil a pot of water and add the Dango balls.
Once the Dango floats to the surface of the water leave them cooking for a few minutes more, then scoop them out and put them into a bowl of cold water to halt the cooking process.
Place one green dango, one white dango, and one pink dango onto a skewer and repeat until all the Dango are gone then serve!
Tips for Making Black Sesame Fried Rice
- Add mayonnaise to rice before frying in order to make grain of rice separated. I explained this trick in Japanese fried rice recipe.
How to Store
You can store cooked dumplings in the freezer. Dango will keep for a few months in the freezer. Scatter the balls without each ball touching each other onto a cling wrap layered flat container or plate. Cover with another sheet of cling wrap and leave it in the freezer. When the balls are frozen, put them in a ziplock bag and return them to the freezer.
What to serve with ?
Related Recipes
Mitarashi Dango – rice dumplings on skewers coated with sweet soy glaze.
Yomogi Dango – rice dumplings made with yomogi mugwort served with kinako soy bean powder or red bean paste.
Hanami Dango
Ingredients
- 90 g Glutinous rice flour *1 equivalent to ¼ cup
- 90 g Water *2 or Silken tofu read above post
- 2 tbs white sugar
- 1/4 tsp Matcha powder
- A drop of Pink colouring
Instructions
- Place the shiratamako, water or silken tofu, and sugar in a large bowl and mix well until it forms a dough with a wooden spatula.
- Divide the dough into three equal portions.
- Add the Matcha powder into one of the dough portions and knead until the dough turns green.
- Add a couple of small drops of pink or red food colouring into one of the other dough portions and knead into the dough until it turns light pink.
- Roll each ball of dough (green, pink, and white) into 6 uniform-sized balls.
- Boil a pot of water and add the Dango balls.
- Once the Dango floats to the surface of the water leave them cooking for a few minutes more, then scoop them out and put them into a bowl of cold water to halt the cooking process.
- Place one green dango, one white dango, and one pink dango onto a skewer and repeat until all the Dango are gone then serve!
Hi, the dango I make keeps getting really sticky, is there something i’m doing wrong?
Hi Eric, are you using right flour?
Hello! I have red many ways to color the pink dango. Berry powder, berry juice, beets, red shiso. But I was wondering if you could use smooth anko paste? And if so how much? Guess it would be like your Halloween dango or some kind of botchan dango! (Which I can also not find a recipe for) Thank you! <3
Hi Christa, I don’t think smooth anko paste will make pink coloured dango, but it will be more like dull purple?
Hi there
Would I be able to put Anko paste in the middle of these??
Just thought that could be super cool!!!
Kate
Hi Kate, I have not tried it myself but yes you can 😀
Hello! The recipe calls for equal parts Shiratamako flour and silken tofu. When I mixed this together, it was so liquid-y and not at all the texture to eventually form dough. It was just too gooey. I used 90 grams of the Shiratamako and 90 grams of tofu. What did I do wrong? Thank you!
Hi Claudia, may be the tofu you used contains more water. If that is the case, you need to adjust the tofu amount. Don’t add them all in once, add gradually and see the texture become like your ear tubs, then stop adding tofu.
Looks good I miss dango! What kind of silken tofu should I use soft, firm, or extra firm? Thank you!
Hi Jordyn, I just got back from Japan and miss Sanshoku dango already 😀 Silken tofu is soft and smooth one. You can use any but soft silken tofu is the best to use for smooth mochi like texture.
Was craving these after my trip to tokyo – so glad i found your recipe – its spot on ! They are so good !! thanks so much 🙂
You are welcome littleb 😀 I am in Tokyo now enjoying all delicious food to recharge myself to share more delicious Japanese recipes when I get back to Australia 😀
wow love it simple and easy!
yes! Thank you 😀
Would it mess up anything is I added a couple drops of flavoring? I have some glutinous rice flour and I would love to try making this.
Hi Becky, I don’t think it will mess up anything if it is only a couple drops of flavouring 😀
Is shiratamako and joshinko rice flour the same thing?
I want to make Hanami Dango but I’m stuck with the rice flour? Do I have to use both? Or one?
Hi Marinette, they are different. If you have rice flour, you can use that. You don’t need to use both if you can’t get either flour 😀
Hi, is there way to make your own shiratamako. I can’t find any.
I want to make japaanese sweets but everything requires mochiko flour or shiratamako.
Hi Joanna where do you live? I don’t know how to make shiratamako. Japanese people buy them from shops. If you live in Australia, you can buy glutinous rice flour from supermarkets 😀 If you would like to know what it looks like have a look at my shop page.
Hi! Is the glutinous rice flour the same as shiratamako? Or is it different? Like joshinko?
HI Aileen, yes it is same 😀
Hi!
I can’t find silken tofu, so I’m gonna use water… how much should I use
Thanks!
Hi Marti, I would use 80% of the dry ingredients. So try to use 120ml water which is 1/2 cup of water. Add water gradually to see the mixture consistency because you don’t want a too runny mixture. When the mixture become like your ear tub softness, stop adding water 😀
Got it! thank you so much!
Hi! What brand of rice flour did you use?
Hi Miggy. The flour I use is in the shop. Thank you 😀
Hi 🙂
I’d love to make these, but just to check, by “3 tbs of white sugar” do you mean 3 tablespoons or teaspoons? I’ve never made my own dango before, so I wouldn’t know! xD
Thank you!!!
ps Thanks for publishing this recipe! <3
Hi Rosie, yes 3 tablespoons 😀 Enjoy making it. It is fun!
can you make them ahead of time? and if so do they need to be refrigerated?
Hi Susan, sorry no you can’t. This Dango is best served fresh. If you make them ahead, the dango become a little harder and dry especially when they are stored in fridge.
Hi i was just wondering how long should they take to cook, and how big should they be in grams?
Hi Christine, it takes about 2-3 minutes the dango start to flat up to the surface. I never weighed, but make something like cherry tomato size.
Also, I love dango!
Thank you An, me too 😀
About how much do the ingredients cost? Also, I am going into a tasting contest where I have to cook. Is the Dango a good contestant? And what is used to give them eyes like in the Anime clanned?
Hi Aaliyah, the cost of the ingredients are depends on where you live. In Australia it will cost like A$5 and you will have left over like food colourings as only 1-2 drops will be used. I am not sure about Anime clanned eyes and also the contents of my blog is copyrighted.
Hello! May i ask how the tofu affects the flavor of the dango? I’ve noticed two of your dango recipes called for silken tofu and I would like to know what flavor they add(as oppose to just water) 🙂
Hi An, Tofu does not affect the flavour of the dango at all as tofu does not taste anything( well At least Japanese tofu doesn’t and I use Japanese tofu)
I love sanshoku dango! I used to go to the wagashiyasan in my neighborhood as a child to get all kinds of wagashi, sanshoku dango being one of them 🙂 I thought about making sakura mochi for Hinamatsuri but chickened out and made matcha cupcakes instead haha.
Hi Ai, Matcha Cupcakes is delicious too:D and me too, thought about Sakura mochi but can’t get ingredients here in Australia so we made Sanshoku dango which is my daughter’s favourite.