Shiba Inu Mitarashi Dango Recipe

Have you ever had dango before? Dango is one of the Japanese traditional snacks, and I shaped them into cute Shiba Inu! They are served with sweet soy sauce glaze (aka Mitarashi Dango).

Dango is one of my favorite snacks, especially Mitarashi dango. I remember eating them at my grandmother’s house all the time as a child in Japan.

The process of shaping dango is kind of similar to playing with playdough. For this dango recipe, I decided to shape them into something cute like Shiba Inu. I purchased this rice ball mold on Amazon, and the process of shaping dango was so much easier.

Of course, using special tools is optional. You can make your own cute designs with your hands and a pair of scissors! Or you can always make traditional style – simply place three to five balls of dango on a skewer.

What is dango?

Dango is a Japanese rice dumpling and is often enjoyed with some types of toppings. It is similar to mochi, but the cooking process is different. Traditionally mochi is made from steamed rice, which is kneaded into a sticky rice cake. Dango is made from rice flour mixed with water, which gets kneaded into dough, then it needs to be cooked before serving.

What does dango taste like?

A plain dango itself tastes slightly sweet but has no strong flavor. Dango has a nice chewy, mochi-like texture, and flavor can be customized by toppings. Traditionally, Japanese people like to add soy sauce glaze, red bean paste, and roasted soybean powder on top of dango. For this recipe, I made Mitarashi Dango, which is dango with sweet soy sauce glaze.

Ingredients for this Mitarashi Dango recipe

For dango

• Joshinko
• Shiratamako
• Silken tofu
• Sugar

For glaze

• Soy sauce
• Mirin (sweet cooking rice wine) – Often available in Asian cuisine aisles in supermarkets or online
• Corn starch
• Sugar
• Water

For decoration

• Some seaweed (Nori) sheets

What is Joshinko and Shiratamako?

Both of them are types of rice flour but are made with different kinds of Japanese short-grain rice. Joshinko gives firmer and bouncier textures and Shiratamako gives soft, chewy, and smooth texture to dango. 

Both are available in Japanese / Asian supermarkets or online.

If Shiratamako is not available, it’s ok to substitute with Mochiko.

Instruction

For dango

In a large bowl, mix Shiratamako, Joshinko, sugar, and silken tofu. Knead by hand until the dango dough becomes smooth and shapes into a ball. (If the dough is too dry to form a ball, add 1 teaspoon of warm water at a time and keep kneading.)

Start boiling a large pot of water on low heat.

Divide the dango dough into 10 equal pieces. Roll five of them into balls. Each ball should be about 1.5 inches in diameter.

As for the rest of the five pieces, fit each dango dough into a Shiba Inu shape with the rice ball mold then gently push the dough out starting from the edges to keep the shape when removing from the mold. Or make any other shapes you like.

If you are going for dango on skewer style, roll the dough into 1 inch in diameter. There will be more than 10 dango balls at the end.

Boil the dango doughs in boiling water. Stir them occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Once the dango doughs float to the surface, they are fully cooked. Transfer them into a bowl filled with cold water.

Drain the dango and place them on a plate. If you made dango for skewers, now is the time to piece them together into skewers. Set them aside.

For glaze

Combine all the ingredients for the glaze in a small bowl and mix well.

Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and cook on the stovetop on medium heat.

Continuously whisk the mixture until thickened. *The consistency changes very quickly and the mixture burns easily. So please keep a close eye on it!

Once the glaze gets thickened, remove the saucepan from the heat and transfer the sauce to a container or bowl.

To decorate

Pour the glaze on top of plated dango doughs with a spoon. For the ball, you can pour the glaze all over on top. For the Shiba Inu dango doughs, pour the glaze on the top half of Shiba Inu’s faces.

Next, let’s clip the seaweed! Cut the seaweed with the seaweed cutting tool that came with the rice ball mold (shown below).

Place a piece of seaweed sheet on top of the red mat. Then place the mold you like on top and push it evenly against the seaweed sheets. Once you hear the crunching noise of seaweed getting cut out, lift the mold and pick up the seaweed cutouts. Or cut the seaweed sheets with scissors into shapes.

Place the seaweed cutouts on top of dango doughs. I placed paw prints on the dango balls and Shiba Inu faces on the rest.

How to store Mitarashi Dango

It is best to finish dango on the same day it was cooked. If you have any leftovers, they will last 3-4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Dango can get hard after being refrigerated. If this happens, zap them in a microwave in 30 seconds increments until it gets soft again.

If you like this mitarashi dango recipe, you may also like:

• How To Make Rilakkuma Pull-Apart Bread
• Mochi – Shaped in Hello Kitty and Pompompurin
• Hello Kitty Cake Roll – A step by step recipe with a template

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