Dango Digest: A Thorough Look at Japanese Dumplings, Part One

When you’re having fun on the go and you’re looking for snackage, food which is as mobile as you is always a good thing. In Japan, country of a thousand festivals, food mobility is an important factor to enjoying the celebrations. Many festival snacks come in ball form (takoyaki), on a stick (yakitori) or both, making carrying around your food without making a mess easy. These two snack attributes are best personified in a treat almost as old as the festivals: dango.

Dango are dumplings which can be either savory or sweet and are often, but not always, served on a bamboo skewer. Savory dango are many times covered in some type of soy-based sauce, which can either be sweet, salty or both, and can be served with nori sprinkled on top or completely wrapped in a sheet of seaweed.

There’s an incredible variety of sweet dessert-style dango, which makes the amount of savory varieties pale in comparison. Sweet dango can be filled, topped or crafted with all manner of traditional Japanese dessert (wagashi) foodstuffs. A few of these traditional ingredients include anko (also known as an), goma (black sesame) and kinako (roasted soybean flour).

However, dango aren’t limited to just Japanese ingredients. You can get creative like I did and create your own toppings for dango; it’s your wagashi- make whatever you want with it!

If you’ve ever considered making your own dango, either with traditional or personal ingredients, this is your lucky day! Today we’ll explore the possibilities with dango and look at the many varieties of the dumplings. Get your steamers ready guys, there’s more to dango than you think!

First, let’s break down the different ways of making dango, including cooking methods, ingredients, and end with varieties.

Cooking

Technically, all dango are cooked in some manner. There are many ways to prepare and cook dango, varying in degrees of simplicity and difficulty.

Boiling
The easiest way to make dango is:

• Mix together mochiko and water
• Make mochiko dough into balls
• Drop balls in boiling water, soup or other liquid
• Cook for about fifteen minutes

Steaming
The next step up from boiling would be:

• Form the mochiko dough into balls
• Steam the dango
• Skewer the balls (optional)
• Roast the dango (optional)

Twice Cooked
Higher up on the dango difficulty scale is what I call twice-cooked dango. To make this dango:

• Reduce dango batter from a viscous liquid to a solid dough
• Form dough into balls
• Thread balls on skewers and steam

Shiro An Method
This is a complex method of making dango, but will yield unique dumplings with an interesting flavor and texture:

• Mix mochiko with shiro koshian
• Steam mixture and work sugar into mix
• Add additional ingredients
• Form into balls and skewer

Flours

Mochiko, glutinous rice flour, is what gives dango their super chewy, gooey texture. Shiratamako, another glutinous rice flour, is also used to make dango. A dango recipe made entirely from mochiko or shiratamako will result in a very soft dango.

Shiratamako is lumpy, and must be dissolved in water or ground before using in a recipe. I’ve heard mochiko can be used interchangeably with shiratamako with little to no adverse results. I personally have used mochiko in place of shiratamako and haven’t noticed the difference. Mochiko is also waaaay cheaper than shiratamako, especially if it’s bought under the name “sweet rice flour”.

Joshinko, non-glutinous rice flour, can be added in varying amounts to create a firmer dango. I recommend a ratio of no more than 1:1 of mochiko to joshinko for dango which is firm but still has some gooey mouth feel. Anything above that results in a denser, less chewy, harder dango.

Liquids

Water is normally used as in making dango, and boiling water at that. However, nothing’s keeping you from substituting other liquids or semi-liquids (anko, mashed fruit, pumpkin filling, etc.) for a portion or all of the water. Fruit or vegetable juice, rose water, milk, tea, or coffee can all be added to dango to enhance the flavor and change the texture. Also, extracts and concentrated flavorings can be added to alter the flavor.

The more liquid used in dango, the softer and gooier it will be. Less water will create a firmer dango, but will also result in a drier dango. Keep in mind you want the liquids hot, unless you plan on cooking the dango ingredients together anyway. Boiling the liquids will dissolve sugars and help bind the mochiko to the other ingredients, which in turn results in smoother, less gritty dango.

Additives

Certain additives, such as powders, non-rice flours, beans, nuts and seeds can be added to the dough, but it’s important to keep in mind how they’ll effect the texture of the finished dango. Small amounts of powdered spices, espresso powder, cocoa, matcha and powdered milk can be added to the rice flour(s) or dissolved in the water/ juice to create flavored dough. Experimentation with amounts is important in finding a recipe that works with your preferred texture and flavorings.

Toppings

After the dango are steamed and/or toasted, it’s your choice what you top them with, if at all. I personally am a huge fan of anko and goma an (black sesame seed paste) on my plain toasted dango. Drowning freshly browned dango in a sea of beans and sesame seeds is more yummy than it sounds. It’s up to you, though, to choose what to cover your dango with.

Some traditional ideas are:

• Tsubu An: Chunky bean paste
• Koshi An: Smooth bean paste
• Shiro An: White bean paste
• Goma An: Black sesame paste
• Kurumi: Walnut powder
• Kuri: Chestnut powder or paste
• Kinako: Roasted soy bean flour
• Mitarashi: Sauce similar to teriyaki
• Matcha An: Green tea paste
• Zunda: Dango topped with slightly sweetened green soybean paste
• Nori: Savory dango wrapped in seaweed

Dango Varities

Dango are named after their toppings, their added ingredients to the dough and their fillings. The above are a sampling of dango named after toppings (goma dango, an dango) but there are also dango named after what’s in the dough and the finished dango or how they’re cooked:

• Matcha Dango: Green tea powder flavored dango
• Kibi dango: Dango made with millet starch
• Yomogi/ Kusa Dango: Mugwort flavored dumplings (kusa dango were originally flavored with cudweed)
• Gomasuri Dango: Lil’ dumplings filled with black sesame paste
• Zunda dango: Dango filled with green soybean paste
• Sasa Dango: Dumplings filled with anko and steamed in bamboo leaves
• Kushi Dango: Skewered dumplings
• Sanshoku Dango (Three Color Dumplings: Sanshoku (three colors): Dumplings made with three colors. Contrary to popular belief, sanshoku dango does not refer to a specific variety. Any dango with three colors is sanshoku dango, including hanami and botchan dango.

Dango are also named for festivals and even fictional characters!

• Hanami Dango (Flower Viewing Dumplings): Three dango on a skewer. Colors are pink (food coloring), white

(plain) and green (matcha, yomogi or food coloring). Hanami dango are eaten during cherry blossom season.

• Tsukimi Dango (Moon Viewing Dumplings): Non-skewered filled or plain dumplings. Usually presented as a pyramid shaped pile of dumplings, tsukimi dango are eaten during the moon viewing festival. I’ve seen ornate tsukimi dango shaped like usagi (bunnies!) as a homage to the mochi pounding rabbit in the moon.
• Ikinari Dango (All of a Sudden Dango): Don’t know why this is called dango, but this daifuku-looking dumpling is made with satsumaimo topped with anko, wrapped with mochiko dough and then cooked. It’s a specialty from Kumamoto where it gets its name from being so easy to make. If visitors pop by, all of a sudden, ikinari dango is so simple, it can be whipped up in minutes.
• Botchan Dango (Named after a fictional character): Three dango on a skewer made from red beans, matcha and egg yolk.

Hopefully, I’ve inspired you to try your hand at making dango. If I have, keep reading for recipes on basic dango and complete dango recipes!