Hanami Dango

Step 1

Gather all the ingredients.

Step 2

Put Yomogi in a bowl and add hot water. Use a fork to combine yomogi and water well.

Step 3

Set aside for 5 minutes. Then strain the yomogi using a fine mesh strainer. Discard the liquid.

Step 4

Combine joshinko, shiratamako, and sugar in a large bowl and mix all together.

Step 5

Add hot water in small increments to combine (NEVER pour water at once). Mix well before you add more water. When the texture of the dough is similar to an earlobe texture, it’s good to go. It’s a funny comparison but that’s the traditional way to check the consistency. If you put too much water and your dough is too soft, add more joshinko.

Step 6

Divide the dough into thirds. Add the red food coloring to one third, the yomogi to another third, and keep the last one as it is.

Step 7

Knead each dough until the color is even and well combined.

Step 8

Roll the dough into 8 even-sized balls for each color. I used a #60 cookie scooper that holds 2 tsp. I have to say it’s a bit bigger than the actual dango, so you can probably use 1 to 1.5 tsp. would be the ideal size. You might be able to get 12 dango total.

Step 9

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the white dango in boiling water until they start floating, about 8 minutes. Stir in the beginning so the dango won't stick at the bottom. Once floating, cook for another 1 minute.

Step 10

Remove the white dango from the water and immediately let them cool in iced water for 1 minute. Then transfer to a plate.

Step 11

Next, work on the pink dango, and repeat the same process. Then finish with the green dango. As you see, the boiling water changes color, so I recommend starting from light to dark color so the white dango doesn’t get stained.

Step 12

Put one of each color dango onto a skewer, in the order of green, white, and pink.  Serve at room temperature.

Step 13

Put dango in an airtight container and keep at room temperature for up to 2 days. If you live in a hot climate, find a cool place to store, but not in the refrigerator as dango will become too tough. Enjoy in 2 days.