‘Dango‘ is a Japanese sweet dumpling made with mochi (rice flour). A popular dessert in Japan, there are exclusive stores that sell only dangos in a multitude of flavours and colors that change with the passing of each season.

As an intense fan of Japanese dramas, I have yearned for a taste of these pretty treats, and when I finally found a recipe, it was so reminiscent of a South Indian breakfast/dessert that I grew up with – Kozhukattai – a rice flour dumpling usually filled with sweet or savory fillings. I jumped at the opportunity to fuse two cultures – and made this Coconut Kinako Dango.

How does it taste?
The Indian addition to this Japanese dessert is a traditional sweet coconut filling. As the dango cooks, the filling gets molten and gooey in the middle, and when you take a bite into it, it’s very soft, and you get a nutty whiff of the kinako – then you start chewing and it is very gummy – a little effort to the jaw but more fun than work. The stretchy dango is interspersed with the crunchy sweet coconut filling, making for a very interesting mouthful. You really can’t stop with one!

Step 1: Making the Filling

The filling is a simple mix of jaggery and coconut. For the Indian kozhukattai, we add a pinch of cardamom to this coconut filling. I wanted to keep the flavours simple and neat and skipped it. But if you want that exotic kick to this filling, go forth with a teeny tiny pinch of cardamom!
To make the filling, just cook coconut and jaggery in a saucepan for a couple of minutes to dry it out. Cool completely before attempting to fill the dango.

Step 2: Making the Dango Dough

The dango comes together quite easily – just mix glutinous rice flour and water. A few seconds of kneading and you’ll see that it feels exactly like play-doh. If you don’t get carried away playing with it, you’ll be done with the dough in less than a minute!

Note: Glutinous rice flour is NOT the same as rice flour. You cannot directly substitute one for another without varied end products. I have not tested this recipe using regular rice flour, and have no insights into how that would be.

Step 3: Filling the Dango

To fill and shape the dango, take a small piece of dough and flatten it in your palm. Place a small amount of filling in it and seal up the edges.

Step 4: Shaping the Filled Dango

Roll the sealed dough between both palms till it shapes into a ball. Repeat that until you run out of dough and filling.

Step 5: Cooking the Dango

While you are shaping the dango, put a pot of water to boil, just like you’d do for pasta or noodles. Drop the shaped dango balls into the bubbling, boiling water and let it cook. They’re done when they all float up to the top and you can remove them with a slotted spoon.

See how raw vs cooked dango look – when cooked, the rice flour gets almost translucent, and you can vaguely see the filling showing through.

Drain the cooked dango and transfer to a bowl of cold water. This will prevent the dango from sticking to each other.