Easiest Tsukimi Dango Recipe
Tsukimi dango is a special food for the Harvest Moon (Japanese Mid Autumn Festival). They are made of little rice balls, similar to mochi. Stack them and set them out to display, or eat them right away!
Servings: 16 dango
Ingredients
- 125 g dango flour
- 100 mL water
- yellow food coloring See note
- ice water for cooling
Instructions
- Set a pot of water to boil while you prep the dango.
- Mix dango flour and water until it forms a soft dough.
- Divide into 16 equal portions and roll each portion into a small ball.
- Add 1-2 drops yellow food dye to one of the balls and knead thoroughly to incorporate the color. Reshape into a ball.
- Place all 16 dango into boiling water. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until all the dango are floating. (After dango are floating, I sometimes like to let it boil for an additional minute to be sure it's cooked through)
- Strain dango and place in ice cold water to let it cool down.
- Strain dango again and gently pat until somewhat dry and tacky.
- Stack the dango into a pyramid: 9 dango in a square for the bottom layer, four dango on the next layer, and the one yellow dango at the top. If your dango are too slippery from the ice bath, they won't stack. You may need to let them dry more or hold them together with your hands until they stick.
- You can set your dango pyramid to display at room temperature for a few days to celebrate the Harvest Moon, or you can eat them before they get too hard. Even after they get hard, you can still toast them to eat (but I personally just don't like eating old food that's been sitting out). Dango can be eaten plain, with red bean paste, or with other toppings of your choice.