Hanami Dango (花見団子, sanshoku)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Mixing bowl
• •Wide pot
• •Slotted spoon or mesh skimmer
• •Bamboo skewers

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the skewers

   Soak the bamboo skewers in water for about 20 minutes. The dango are not grilled, but damp skewers slide through the dumplings more cleanly and don't splinter as readily.

2. 2

   Mix the flours

   Put the joshinko, shiratamako, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Rub the shiratamako between your fingers to break up any hard pearls before you add water. Those little lumps soften unevenly if left whole, and dango should chew evenly from edge to center.

   The blend matters. Joshinko gives body and rice flavor; shiratamako gives chew. Together they make the plain, spring-picnic texture you want.
3. 3

   Make the dough

   Add the warm water a little at a time, mixing with your fingers or a sturdy spoon. Stop when the dough gathers into a smooth, soft mass about the firmness of an earlobe. If it cracks, add water by the teaspoon. If it sticks heavily to your fingers, dust in a little more joshinko.

   Rice flour does not behave the same every day. The measurement gets you close, but the touch tells you when to stop.
4. 4

   Color the thirds

   Divide the dough into three equal pieces. Leave one white. Knead the pink coloring, or sakura powder, into the second piece until the color is pale and even. Knead the squeezed yomogi into the third piece for green, or use matcha if yomogi is out of reach. Keep the colors gentle. Hanami dango should look like spring, not a toy box.

5. 5

   Shape the dango

   Divide each color into 6 equal pieces and roll them between your palms into smooth balls, about 2.5cm across. If the surface cracks, wet your hands lightly and roll again. Smooth surfaces cook cleanly and sit better on the skewer.

6. 6

   Boil gently

   Bring a wide pot of water to a lively simmer, then lower the dango in by color or in small batches. Stir once so they don't settle and stick to the bottom. When they float, cook them 1 minute longer. Floating tells you the center has set; the extra minute keeps the chew from being pasty.

   Do not boil them violently. Hard rolling water batters the surface, and the neat little spring dumpling becomes a lesson in impatience.
7. 7

   Cool in water

   Lift the dango into a bowl of cold water. This stops the cooking and firms the surface so the dumplings stay round and glossy. Leave them just until cool, then drain well on a clean cloth.

8. 8

   Skewer and serve

   Thread one green, one white, and one pink dango onto each skewer, traditionally with green at the bottom, white in the middle, and pink at the top. Serve the same day at room temperature. No sauce, no filling, no anko hiding the rice. The plainness is the point.

Chef Tips

• •Buy Japanese rice flours if you can. Joshinko and shiratamako are milled for this kind of texture, and ordinary rice flour from a general baking shelf often cooks up gritty or dull.
• •Yomogi gives the green dango its spring bitterness and grassy smell. Matcha is a sensible stand-in when yomogi is unavailable, but use only a little or it will take over the rice.
• •Eat hanami dango the day you make it. Refrigeration hardens rice starch quickly, so cold storage turns a tender chew into something that makes you negotiate with your teeth.
• •Keep the colors pale. The old pleasure of this sweet is restraint: blossom, snow, grass. Leave it room.

Advance Preparation

• •The skewers can be soaked earlier in the day and kept wrapped in a damp cloth.
• •The dry flour, sugar, and salt can be mixed a day ahead and kept covered.
• •Do not shape and refrigerate the raw dough overnight. Rice flour dries at the surface and cracks when boiled.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 65g)