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Hanami Dango | 花見団子

By Lisa Kitahara

on Aug 14, 2019

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This Hanami Dango recipe is amazingly chewy and tender with the perfect amount of sweetness. Easy to make & requires just 3-ingredients to make this popular Japanese dessert!

Dango is one of those desserts that bring me right back to my childhood in grandmas small apartment. I was fortunate enough to travel to Japan every summer to visit my grandparents and eat so much good food. Every night, we would end the day with something sweet. My choice of dessert was always homemade dango and mochi over ice cream and cake. Something about chewy, tender, sticky morsels of subtly sweet rice cakes was so satisfying to eat. There are many different varieties of dango, but I wanted to first share a recipe for Hanami Dango because it’s beautiful and the most simplest to make.

What is Hanami Dango?

Hanami Dango, also called Sanshoku Dango (3 coloured dango) is another variant of the dango family. It is the iconic pink, white and green dango on a stick, there is even an emoji for it on iPhones! This special tri-coloured dango is sold year around, but is especially popular during the spring during the cherry blossom viewing. This is where the name Hanami Dango stems from where Hanami literally translates to “flower looking”.

What Does Hanami Dango Taste like?

Plain dango balls tastes like sweet rice. It sounds boring, but what makes this Japanese dessert so special is the texture. Chewy, tender, soft but still firm and toothsome. Some dangos comes with a topping such as sweetened black sesame paste, sweet soy sauce or anko (sweet red bean paste). However, Hanami Dango is served as is. The green dango typically is slightly earth because it is subtly flavoured with mugfort (yomogi), but matcha can also be used. The pink dango is also sometimes flavoured with sakura or strawberry powder but usually tastes the same as the white dango.

Dango Ingredients

Dango traditionally is made with only rice or rice flour. However, my grandma always incorporated tofu to achieve a more tender, soft and chewy texture. I’ve always made it with the addition of the tofu but was curious how it would turn out if I only used Japanese rice flour. I attempted to make dango with just rice flour and found it to be much more tough and not as springy in texture.

So to achieve soft and chewy dango with the right amount of firmness, these are the 3 main ingredients needed:

glutinous rice flour or mochiko
fresh silken tofu
white sugar

To make green dango, I used matcha powder and for the pink dango, I used strawberry powder. The colouring really is for presentation purposes only, so you can still enjoy dango without the powders.

How to Make Hanami Dango Step by Step

Step 1: The first step is to make the dough by combining the tofu, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Use your hands to squeeze the mixture together, almost in a kneading motion until everything is well incorporated. Then divide the dough into 3 equal portions.

Step 2: Add the matcha powder into one portion of dough and mix until the colour is uniform. Add the strawberry powder or pink food colouring into another portion of dough and mix until the colour is uniform.

Step 3: Divide the dough into 5-6 equal sized pieces. For 5 pieces, each piece should weigh 14-15 grams. If 6 pieces, 11-12 grams each.

Step 4: Roll each piece into a ball using your palms.

TIP: To achieve perfect round balls, dust your hands with a little bit of rice flour so the don’t stick to your hands.

Step 5: Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the dango balls in. Let them cook until they start floating to the top. Then use a strainer ladle to scoop them out.

dango balls in cold water & dango balls on a bamboo stick

Step 6: Place the dango into a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking. Step 7: Once cooled, place the dango balls in a bamboo skewer in this order: green, white pink. Repeat for the remaining balls.

And… thats it! Easy right? I hope this recipe leaves you inspired to make Hanami Dango right in your own kitchen! Stay tuned for more dango recipes coming in the near future!

If you recreate this Hanami Dango recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!

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Description

This Hanami Dango recipe is amazingly chewy and tender with the perfect amount of sweetness. Easy to make & requires just 3-ingredients to make this popular Japanese dessert!

Ingredients

Units USM

1/2 block of silken soft tofu (100g)
3/4 cup glutinous rice flour (90g)
1/4 cup white sugar (50g)
1/4 tsp strawberry powder*, optional
1/4 tsp matcha powder*, optional
5–6 bamboo skewer sticks

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Instructions

Weigh the rice flour, silken tofu and sugar and then add Into a large bowl. Mix well using your hands. Using a kneading motion until a dough forms.
Divide the dough into three equal parts.
Sift in the strawberry powder into one portion of the dough and knead until it forms a uniform pink colour.
Sift in the matcha powder into another portion of the dough and knead well until it turns green.
Divide each ball of dough into 5-6 balls. I weigh each ball to be around 14-15 grams each, this yields 5 skewers. For smaller balls, make them into 10-12 grams each.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the dango balls. Leave the dango balls to cook. Remove the dango balls when they rise to the top of the water. Scoop them out using a strainer ladle and place into a bowl of ice cold water to stop them from cooking further.
Add one green dango ball onto a skewer. Follow with one white and one pink dango ball. Repeat for all 5-6 skewers then enjoy!

Notes

Strawberry powder and matcha is added just for natural colour and a tiny bit of flavour, however is not essential or traditional. You can either leave out the colour entirely or food colour can be used instead.
Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool (Cronometer) for 1 out of 5 skewers.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Category: Desserts
Method: Stove Top
Cuisine: Japanese

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 skewer
Calories: 108
Sugar: 8.2g
Sodium: 4.8mg
Fat: 0.6g
Saturated Fat: 0
Unsaturated Fat: 0
Trans Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 22.7g
Fiber: 0
Protein: 2.2g
Cholesterol: 0

SAVE IT FOR LATER! ↓

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Konnichiwa

About Lisa

I'm Lisa, a home cook, recipe developer and founder of Okonomi Kitchen. Here, you'll find a mix of classic and modernized Japanese recipes, and creative, plant-forward meal inspiration using seasonal ingredients. I hope to share more about Japanese cuisine and culture through food and recipes.

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99 Comments

Excellent and easy recipe, worked really well for me! If anyone has any tips on keeping the balls more spherical, please do let me know 🙂
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Great recipe, and thank you for sharing! I wanted a golden version, for new year’s, so did one with a tiny amount of turmeric, and it came out nice.
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great
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Can these be made ahead of time or do they need to be made fresh?
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1. Its best to serve as soon as possible. It should be fine for a few hours. But it will no longer be good if it is stored overnight (will get a grainy and hard texture). Hope this helps 🙂
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Delicious and easy to make! I used cocoa powder and golden milk mix (turmeric, mostly) and they tasted delightful I could’ve been a little more careful with shaping though LOL thank you!
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My budding chef daughter loves Japanese food and made these tonight. She failed to read the ingredients exactly so we had rice flour and firm tofu. She made it up anyway and it was a little chewy but she had made the balls bigger. She used blackberry jam for the pink. They were totally delicious! It was quite easy! They are sorta like mochi. Thank you!
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Very well written instructions. Thank you! But how do you keep the nice round shape? Mine came out of the pot all wonky.
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1. I used a spider strainer to pick them out of the pot, it helped keeping them in a good shape, plus just being careful while putting them in helps
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I was surprised how easy and fun to make these dango were, and they were tasty too! I’ll definitely make these again 🙂
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Hi Lisa, I just wanted to ask if I could use almond flour as a substitute for rice flour? The store had no rice flour when I went there and I do still want to try this recipe. Thank you 🙂
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Hi Lisa! I’m a little confused about the recipe. Isn’t 3/4 a cup equal to 150 grams? I’m unsure what measurements to use because in your recipe you put 3/4 a cup or 90 g. I’ll be using 100 g of the tofu so I just wanted to clear this up. thank you!
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1. 3/4 cup of flour is 90 g 🙂
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I used a mixture of non glutinous rice flour and glutinous rice flour. It turned out well however the rice flour I used was grainy and it was shown in the dango. I also used mitirashi sauce.
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So grateful for this recipe, it turned out beautifully! Thank you for putting in the work and sharing!!
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These dango ended up being super pretty and tasted pretty good too. I had just ran out of matcha powder but I wanted the aesthetic still so I ended up using food colouring gel for the color. I also felt like it needed a tad bit more sugar, but that’s probably because I’ve been having too many sweets recently haha. Overall super easy recipe and the only thing I’m really missing is the actual hanami season.
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The recipe was super easy to do especially when you measure out the ingredients and following the recommendations! My little sister and I will definitely be making much more of this for our friends! Thank you, Lisa!! ❤️❤️❤️
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I absolutely love these! They’re so good to make! ^^
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This was my first time trying and making hanami dango. It was pretty good and the flavor was very simple (I used pandan extract and red food coloring). I would probably use this recipe again if I want to make it again in the future. When I made it, I used soft tofu rather than silken (because that’s what I had in the fridge) and the texture was kind of grainy because it was hard to mash the tofu evenly. I think that if I used silken instead, it would have been better. I’ll use silken for the next time. Thank you for the recipe!
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1. Update: I made this recipe again with silken tofu – it was *perfect* in consistency and texture. Confirmed, the type of tofu is important. USE SILKEN TOFU!
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Any chance I could use tapioca flour? I just have a lot of it on hand 🙂 Or would it turn out more like mochi? Maybe I’ll give it a try
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1. No I recommend shiratamako or mochiko. If you really cannot find it glutinous rice flour in the clear package with green text (thai brand) will work too 🙂
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  1. So delicious! Had some difficulty, but I think it was my fault. It didn’t specify if you were supposed to press the tofu or not? I’m thinking maybe I was supposed to? I at least drained the silken tofu and pressed one side. But took a lot of (I searched to see if it was the same, internet said glutinous rice flour=sweet rice flour) and it took a lot to fork into a dough texture, was it the tofu or the flour? Either way delicious! I’ll just try pressing more since how much flour I added overtook the flavour.
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The recipe is perfectly written out, but our mixture did not turn out right. It must have been the tofu. The only kind we could find at the grocery store today was gluten free silken. I think it ruined the consistency. We’ll try again! Just a warning to others out there (we used all the other ingredients exactly as listed).
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I really enjoyed making this, I get stressed with making desserts, but the dough was nice and smooth and easy to work with. The recipe was easy to follow, I made it without the powders or food colouring as I didn’t have any, but still really tasty. 🙂 x
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This was my first time trying and making dango! The recipe was super easy and everything was ready in under an hour. The dango was so chewy and perfectly sweet. I used glutinous rice flour for the recipe–the inside texture was a little bit grainy but I think I should have cooked it a bit longer.
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My turned out grainy, how do I avoid that? I used silken tofu, rice flour and white sugar
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1. It must be glutinous rice flour 🙂
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VERRRYYY DETAILED RECIPE and delicious dango!! I tried it and lemme just say, if you’re scared of tofu being in your sweets, IT DOESN’T EVEN TASTE LIKE TOFU!! It’s a great snack especially for my diabetic grandparents 😊 i substituted the sugar for natural sweeteners for them too! for example, for the pink i put homemade strawberry syrup! THANKSSS LISA!!
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I’ve made them twice and I loved them! Great recipe from simple ingredients, thanks! 🙂
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Would it be a good idea to make this recipe, even though I’ve never tried it before in my life? I really want to make it, but my family keeps saying I should buy it somewhere because I would have no idea if it would be correct or not. And I don’t know where dango is sold here..
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It was so easy to follow this recipe and they turned out perfectly, I actually used the dango as decoration on a cake and it looked so cute!
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I’m not sure the strawberry powder linked on Amazon is a good baking powder. The Matcha and White dango balls went well, but the dough disagreed with the strawberry powder. The strawberry portion quickly started wanted sticking to everything but itself even with additional rice flour, never getting enough strawberry to get a good pink color before I gave up and managed to get them into the water in a relative ball shape. I’d recommend a different powder or just food dye.

They were also a bit hard to get on skewers (without making them a little misshapen), but I used different skewers than the ones in the image and used just ‘soft’ tofu because literally nowhere sells any softer tofu where I am. Had to go to a specialty market to get even get plain soft.

Tastes a lot like mochi. Never had dango before and the only way for me try it so to make it myself. I’d say it’s pretty light in flavor but that’s pretty consistent with Japanese confectionaries overall in my experience. Not that it’s a bad thing. Good recipe overall.
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1. Hi, Chelby!
  
  I ran into the same issue with the strawberry powder. Now, whenever I use this recipe, I use a full tablespoon of powder instead of the recommended 1/4 teaspoon. It becomes very sticky, but I have found that I can still mix the color fully into the dough if I use a pounding motion with my knuckles (punching the dough). Roll the dough like you would when kneading but then just punch it a few times before rolling it in on itself again.
  
  Also, it’s important to “shock” the balls in ice water once they’re done cooking which causes them to become more firm and keep their shape when inserting the skewers. Just make sure you soak the skewers in water for a while before adding the dango. Works well for me!
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This was so easy to follow and they turned out so pretty and delicious!!
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Recipe is easy to follow and the ingredients are pretty easy to find. I did undercook mine the first time around – so make sure to boil them properly! (They were still tasty though) Thanks for sharing!
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This recipe was amazing!! The chewiest dangos I have ever made, and it taste delicious, not too sweet! I am definitely going to keep remaking this recipe 🙂 I did not have sakura powder, but I used a teaspoon of strawberry jello mix and it ended up tasting a little like strawberry as well!
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This recipe was amazing!! The chewiest dangos I have ever made, and it taste delicious, not too sweet! I am definitely going to keep remaking this recipe 🙂 I did not have sakura powder, but I used a teaspoon of strawberry jello mix and it ended up tasting a little like strawberry as well!
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Easy and so delicious ! So satisfying to make. All the family loved it ! I don’t like tofu in savoury recipes but decided to try these sweet dango and although I taste the silken tofu, the sugar kicks it and make those dango the perfect treat !
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The recipe was super easy to follow and they turned out amazing 🥰 I’ve used glutinous rice flour by the way 🙂
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I’m gonna try to make this for my friend! I’m rating it 5 right now but when it turns out I’ll check in again! Sounds great!
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This recipe was easy to follow and delicious! I’m allergic to matcha so I used a little green food coloring instead.
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I used strawberry pink aroma pasta dye(?) that my grandma had hidden away because i didnt have strawberry dye, just as delicious!!
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So good! And easy to prepare! Love your recipes and videos ❤️
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yummy! mine arent as smooth and perfectly round as yours, but still very good with an excellent protein boost. my bf said these look like little gnocchis lol. thank u for this easy recipe!
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this recipe is so amazing!! SO soft and SO chewy also very easy to make 🙂
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Is there by any chance a typo in the quantities? Was the glutinous rice flour supposed to be 1 3/4 cup instead of just 3/4?

Asking because I just made this and with the quantities as listed, it wasn’t any kind of dough, more like pudding! We kept adding more and more of the flour, and eventually with close to 1 1/2 cups, it was sort of holding together, but still wetter and stickier than your pictures look…

Even after being cooked they’re pretty gloppy and I can’t tell if they’re fully cooked or not. They did float up to the top of the pan though?
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Lovely! Made this plainly coloured to place on top of cheese tea and it was so good! If you haven’t had dango before don’t fret, it’s really satisfying to eat and was a hit with my family🤤. Though I had trouble with shaping as they were quite sticky, I added a bit more rice flour but didn’t want to add too much in case I change the end consistency so when I placed them onto a surface to roll others the bottoms were flat. Overall the recipe is amazing and super simple but I think you should specify whether the dough is meant to be sticky or not sticky at all. Will definitely be making this again!
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I made it several times already, they’re so good !! Thanks for the recipe !
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This is such a fun dessert recipe! The ingredients are simple but tasty and I like how the pink and green colors add a nice aesthetic touch. My dough was too soft at first (maybe I added too much silken tofu?) so I added 1/4 cup more rice flour and I used more matcha and strawberry powder for a stronger color. Thank you for the recipe, Lisa!
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these are so pretty & they turned out amazing!
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Amazing recipe! The dango are chewy and sweet and so easy to make. I was excited to make these as I often had them when I was in Japan during spring. Yum! 🌸
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I also tried this variation as well, it’s not too squishy but still chewy and delicious!
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THIS! So delicious! Super easy and fast to make! First time I ever tried Dango and I made them myself!! Wow. I will just say, I’m in love. <3
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Honestly I had to hold myself not to eat it all in one go hahaha It was delicious, thank you for sharing the recipe! I’ll try to freeze some prior to boiling and see how it goes otherwise I’ll have to stuff myself with it 😂
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first time making dango, so easy and delicious using this recipe! found it while searching to find one that didn’t require specialty rice flours (I only had mochiko), and happened to have silken tofu in the fridge. i used matcha powder and freeze dried strawberry powder + a little beet juice for color. thanks for the beginner-friendly recipe and helpful photos!
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This recipe was amazing!! It was the first time I ever made dango and I love it! My 7 year old daughter is a huge fan too!
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Super easy recipe and yummy !
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I’m so excited to try this recipe as a surprise for my 24 year old daughter. She had a childhood friend that always shared her dango with her. They lost contact after they started middle school. It’s a fond memory I have of her always asking me to buy her dango but could never find it. It comes up in conversation from time to time. If I had known it was that simple a recipe I would have made it years ago. However I will get that chance as she will be coming to meet me in Hawaii as her college graduation gift. Dango will definitely be on the special dinner I’m planning for her. Thank you for the great recipe and the smile you’ll help me out on her face. It doesn’t matter how old our kids get. Seeing their child like smile of joy is food for our souls.
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Hi there, I’ve tried making these a few times and I feel like in the end my dango have a bit of a grainy texture. What am I doing wrong? I’ve kneaded the heck out of them each time and blended everything really well.
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1. Hi Steph! What kind of tofu are you using? It might be the tofu, some tofu is a bit more grainy
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  1. Ooooh that makes sense. I couldn’t find silken tofu so I used soft. I’ll try a different one next time! Thank you!
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The best dango recipe I have ever used! I’ve made this about 6 times since I discovered your website in the summer. I combine these dango with the mitarashi sauce from Just One Cookbook’s website – DELICIOUS !
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This recipe was so useful and easy to follow! I used it for an insta post on our Instagram @the.hangrygals was fun!! Would definitely come back and check out some other recipes.
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1. So happy to hear, thanks for the feedback! I hope you enjoy the other recipes 🙂
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Hi Lisa! Would like to ask is there gonna be any different in texture when using glutinous rice flour and mochiko? Cause it’s hard to get mochiko in my country, Malaysia. :/
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1. Glutinous rice flour I find is just a little more dense but it will work!
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Um, I followed the directions, but I had to use ALot of strawberry powder… Also, they were hard to get cleanly on the skewer and the colors didn’t look anything like the pictures. Very disappointed
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1. The strawberry powder is for colour, not flavour! The matcha you used might have been old which results in a darker green. Were the dangos fully cooked? What was the texture like before boiling?
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I used a slightly different recipe that only used glutinous and regular rice four. When I boiled it the dango balls just turned to goo. Did I get the wrong kind of rice flour?
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1. Did you follow this recipe? There is no regular rice flour listed– I don’t recommend rice flour because that is not meant to make dango/mochi!
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Hi there. I have made these a few times and I’m having trouble shaping the dough. It doesn’t seem to matter how much flour I have on my hands the dough is still super sticky. I love the results though.
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1. Hi Mitch! Try wetting your hands, it should help!
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This recipe is so easy and fun to make! Amazing that it has tofu 🤗 it came out perfectly chewy and colourful. Thank you for the recipe !!
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Do I have to use silken tofu? Or can i use normal tofu?
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1. Hi Emma! To achieve the really soft texture you have to use silken tofu! If you can’t, you can also try fresh SOFT tofu nothing firmer than that. Goodluck!
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Hello, my rice flour actually says gluten free! Is there a way around this?
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1. Way around what?
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2. All rice is gluten-free; “glutenous” rice flour just means flour made from sticky (short-grain) rice. “Sweet” rice also means sticky. Don’t ask me why.
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Delicious and well-written instructions. i followed everything except replaced sugar with monk fruit sugar. also love that your website doesn’t freeze up my browser with ads. Thank you for everything!
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1. Thank you, happy to hear it was helpful 🙂
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Can I make this ahead of time and possibly put in the refrigerator.
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1. Hi Kayla!
  
  They do tend to get a bit hard when places in the refrigerator. I recommend storing them at room temp in a cool-ish place 🙂
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Hey Can i make and keep the dough in advance And then boil it How long will that stay…?
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1. Hi Rajat!
  
  I actually haven’t tried that! I’m thinking the dough might get a little dry, but you could try wrapping it securely to retain moisture. If you do try it out, let me know how it goes!
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Hey! Do you know how long you can keep these in fridge?
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1. Hi Joanna!
  
  They actually tend to get a little hard if placed in the fridge- it’s probably best to eat them fresh. BUT they will be okay for at least a day if you wrap it and place it in a container at room temp 🙂
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Hi, can you use other types of sugar? Oh and by the way, I love your blog and I love that you also share japanese recipes and is even talking a bit about them them and such. Japan has such a fascinating food history and I love that there is meaning in every dish.
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1. Hi Emily!
  
  I would use white sugar if you want them to look nice. However, I’m sure you can use another dry sugar (not artificial sweeteners though). & thank you so much! I really appreciate it 🙂
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Hi Lisa, really enjoyed watching your videos. Thanks !!!
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1. Hi Udi, Thank you so much!
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2. Clear, detailed and easy to follow instructions. I just made them this morning and they turned out great! Thank you for sharing your recipes with us ❤️
  
  I did notice that my dango balls became misshapen and a little flat after boiling, however—could this be due to too much water in the dough? I’m thinking maybe the water content of the silken tofu I used was higher, which resulted in a moister dough that couldn’t hold its shape after boiling?
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Hi Can I use sticky rice flour for this recipe? I have bought 10 kg by excidend. Ups
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1. Hi Marla! Could you provide the brand name for me?
  
  Lisa
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  1. I added an extra few cups of glutinous rice flour haha, the dough was way too sticky. Otherwise great recipe, I added some vanilla flavouring to the white ones too. Took a very long time to make though.
    Reply