How to Make Dango: A Japanese Sweet Treat

Hello and welcome back to another how-to recipe video! Today, I'm excited to share with you a traditional Japanese sweet treat called dango. Dango is made from pounded sticky rice, also known as mochi, which is then molded into small balls or shapes and served with various toppings such as red bean paste, ice cream, or fruit. In this video, we'll be making two types of dango: hanami dango, which represents the beginning of spring, and ondango, a plain dango covered in red bean paste.

To start, let's empty 250 grams of the dango mix into a bowl. This is the entire bag of mixed rice flour, sugar, and other ingredients that we'll be using to make our dango. Next, add 200 cc's or 200 grams of hot water to the mixture. At first, it may look like shaggy dough, but don't worry, with some kneading, it will come together nicely.

Now, let's get our hands dirty! We'll start by mixing the dough until it forms a ball and then continue kneading it until it becomes nice and supple. You can also divide the dough in half at this stage to make two types of dango: one with red food coloring for hanami dango and the other without coloring for ondango. For hanami dango, we'll add just a quarter of the dough and color it pink with one drop of red food coloring. We'll do the same thing with another quarter of the dough to make green ondango.

After kneading both colors well, roll out each piece into a nice snake shape using a rolling pin or your hands. Then, use a butter knife to cut them into small segments. I initially made 14 pieces, but in hindsight, they were too small, so I ended up combining them together and making seven balls instead.

Once we have our pink and green dango pieces done, cover them with a damp paper towel to prevent drying out. Now, it's time for the white dough. Roll out the remaining white dough into a cylinder shape, divide it in half, and then cut it into seven equal pieces. Just like before, roll each piece into a ball shape.

Now that our dango balls are ready, let's cook them! We'll submerge the dango balls into rapidly boiling water for about three to four minutes or until they float to the surface. This is where the magic happens, and your dango will start to firm up.

After the cooking process, carefully scoop out the dango from the pot with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Once cooled, we can add some toppings like skewers or glaze made from sugar, honey, or fruit syrup.

For our hanami dango, we'll add some spring-inspired colors like cherry blossoms or pastel pink to represent the beginning of spring. It's a beautiful time of year in Japan when people come together to picnic beneath the blooming sakura trees.

In contrast, ondango is a plain dango covered with red bean paste. The red bean paste is made from azuki beans that have been ground and sweetened with sugar. If you're not a fan of red bean paste, don't worry! You can add some sugar to your mixture before cooking it down into a paste.

For our video today, we used the dango mix provided by the store, but if you can't find this at your local grocery store or Asian market, you can also try making dango from scratch using runny-run's recipe. Both methods will yield delicious results!

As I mentioned earlier, I'll be posting more videos on my other channel where we'll be doing kid-friendly crafts and everyday recipes that everyone in the family will love.

That's it for today's video! I hope you enjoyed making dango with me, and I'd love to see your creations when you make them. Don't forget to subscribe to this channel, and if you're new here, give yourself a big welcome to our little corner of the web where we share fun recipes, tips, and ideas for creating delicious treats at home!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: engreetings lovelies hi it's emmy welcome back to another how to recipe today i'll show you how to make this and this is dango ding ding ding this is hanami dangle so it's in these cute spring-like colors and this is ondango which is just plain dango that's covered with uncle paste which is red bean paste so for those of you unfamiliar with dongle dongle are little japanese sweets and they're made out of pounded sticky rice so let's go in the kitchen and i'll show you what i did okay begin by emptying 250 grams of the dango mix which is the entire bag to a bowl and then add 200 cc's or 200 grams of hot water and then mix this all together at first it's pretty shaggy but it'll soon come together and you'll want to keep kneading the stove until it's nice and supple and smooth if you're going to make two types of dango divide the dough in half and keep the unused portion covered with a damp paper towel so it doesn't dry out take one half and divide it into half again and then we're going to color a quarter of the dough with one drop of red food coloring to make pink and one drop of green food coloring to the other quarter to make green knead this really well till the color is nice and consistent roll the dough out into a nice snake and then use a butter knife and cut them into little segments i initially did 14 pieces but i ended up combining them together because i thought they were too small so i got seven balls once the pink and green dongle are finished you can go ahead and cover them with a damp paper towel and then take the rest of your white dough roll it out into a cylinder again divide it in half and then cut it into seven pieces once the pieces have been formed in two balls then you're ready to cook them what are you doing making another snail nice to add the dongo to some rapidly boiling water while they're cooking you might want to give them a little bit of a stir so they don't stick to the bottom and when they come to the surface about three or four minutes then scoop the dongle out and put them in a bowl of cold water and allow them to cool next skewer the cool dongle balls onto a skewer three to a stick i'm using some store-bought ankle base called cochon it's nice and smoothly textured feel free to use whatever kind you like and then just spread it onto your dongle balls and you're ready to serve as you saw in the video i used this dongle mix which made it really really easy if you can't find this dongle mix around where you live you might want to check out my friends cooking with dog or runny runny 999 they both have recipes on how to make dango and they don't use a mix so maybe they can help you out so let's try the hanami dango first hanami is the beginning of spring hana means flower me means like viewing or watching so it's the time of year where the chair blossoms bloom or sakura it's wonderful time of year because everyone picnics beneath the flowering trees itadakimasu to be honest i'm not a huge fan of dongle it doesn't have that much of a flavor if you guys use end up using this mix and you want to make these i suggest you add some sugar i didn't add any sugar this needs some sugar all it tastes like is rice it has a really delightful texture though this one's the on dongle and indeed much better flavor if you're not a fan of uncle though i don't think you'll like this because the uncle is the only flavoring in here which is this red bean paste that has been ground and sweetened with sugar i like it it tastes very natural and sweet and it goes actually quite well with the chewy rice dongle dumpling so i found this at h mart which is a local korean japanese grocer and it was about five dollars i think i think you can also order this online i should also mention that i've done a few candy kits that involve dongo and i've explained them before so i'll put those links down below here's another update i have another channel i'll be posting kid crafts and some everyday recipes there as well so if you're interested click to subscribe oh and if you're not subscribed to this channel then go ahead and do so because then you'll never miss a video all right i hope you guys enjoyed that i hope you guys learned something and i shall see you in my next video take care bye indeed very strong smell of five spice which is combination of five different spices including star and then comes the fun part just pour in your glue mixture into your borax solution and you'll start making slime you\n"