In Japan, we eat tsukimi dango at the autumn moon viewing time. We also imagine a rabbit when we look at the moon because of an old Japanese Tale. Today, I want to share a cute rabbit dango recipe instead of boring plain dango. I also inserted sweet potato filling inside of dango. It’s yummy, chewy, and cute. It can be a perfect vegan snack not only for the moon festival.
What is Tsukimi?
Tuskimi (月見) is autumn moon-viewing which literally translates to “moon watch” in Japanese. Just like the Moon Festival celebrations in China, Tsukimi takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Although the moon-viewing custom was introduced by the Chinese 1000 years ago, we don’t eat moon cake as a Chinese moon festival celebration. We have unique customs and food to celebrate for the festival. And Tsukimi dango is the most important food for Tsukimi.
What is Tsukimi Dango?
Dango is chewy white dumplings made from rice flour. Tsukimi dango is also made from the same ingredients but normally stacked in a pyramid to represent an offering to the moon. To thank the gods for a bountiful harvest, we decorate with tsukimi dango with crops harvested in autumn such as taro, chestnuts, sweet potato with pampas grass.
Ingredients of Tsukimi Dango
The traditional dango or tsukimi dango is made with only non-glutinous rice flour and hot water. I don’t mind the traditional dango flavor and texture but it might be too plain and chewy for many people. So most of the time when I make a dango, I mix in glutinous rice flour.
- Jyoshin ko (上新粉)….is non-glutinous rice flour. It becomes hard and lumpy when kneaded with water. So add boiling water to make it “gelatinized.” Then it will have a nice chewy texture.
- Shiratama ko (白玉粉)….is a type of glutinous rice flour. Sometimes called sweet rice flour in English. Shiratama ko is milled by the wet meal method. It has a smooth and sticky chewy texture after being cooked. Knead with cold water. If you knead Shiratamako with hot water, it will be partially gelatinized and sticky, so be careful.
- Sugar … granulated white sugar or any kind of white sugar. Provide sweetness to dango. Dango will get hard because the water contained in the gelatinized starch disappears. However, if you add sugar to the dango dough, it will remain relatively soft.
- Sweet Potato Fillings(さつまいも餡): Dango normally does not have any fillings, but I added sweet potato fillings to make the dango tastier. Freeze the filling before inserting it into the dango dough, which makes it easier to wrap the filling.
How to Create Rabbit Dango?
Rabbit Ear– Stainless Steel BBQ skewer is the best to make shearing marks of rabbit ears. I didn’t have them in my house, so I used a chocolate dipping fork, and it worked. However, a BBQ skewer is much easier to make the marks.
Rabbit Eye– I used a Japanese red food powder but you can use any red food color you have in your house. Or you can create the eye with melted chocolate.
How to Keep the Tsukimi Dango?
Dango should be kept at room temperature. Highly recommend eating them within the day you made them. Dango will get hard in the refrigerator. You can freeze the cooked dango and re-boil them before eating. However, the surface of dango gets a little too soggy than the freshly made one.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125g) of shiratama ko (glutinous rice flour)
- ⅓ cup (67g) of sugar
- ½ cup (75g) of cold water
- ½ cup (75g) of Jyoshin ko (non-glutinous rice flour)
- ¼ cup (50ml) of hot water
- 1 pc of sweet potato
- 10% of sugar of sweet potato weight
Instructions
- [Sweet Potato Fillings] Bake sweet potato with an oven or an air fryer until potato is cook. You will know when the potato is cooked by piercing it with a bamboo stick or fork. If it’s cooked, It’ll be easy to go through and slide off the fork.
- Peel the potato skin while it is hot. Place the potato into a medium-size bowl, and mash the potato with a potato masher or spatula.
- Add 10% of the sugar of potato weight. Mix well until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Transfer the potato paste into the small piping bag, and pipe it into the small size of a ball. Freeze them until the potato balls are completely frozen.
- [Dango Dough] Add shiratama ko and sugar together in a medium-sized bowl. Add water gradually, mixing well.
- In another bowl, add jyoshin ko, gradually add hot water, mixing well by spatula. Add shiratama sugar dough into here, knead the two doughs until the mixture takes on the consistency of an earlobe.
- Divide the dough equally into 16 to 20 balls. (each ball is about 10g). Flatten each ball in your palm, and lay the frozen potato fillings in the middle of the flattened ball. Fold the edge to seal the dumpling and lightly roll it into a dome shape like a rabbit’s body. Set aside.
- Boil a lot of water. Add the mochi balls into the boiling water and cook for about 3 - 4 minutes.
- When the mochi balls start to float, remove them from hot water into a bowl of cold water and cool them down.
- Transfer the dango balls to a plate. Heat a bbq skewer or any metal skewer on a gas top fire or by torch. (Be careful to handle the heated skewer.) When the top of the skewer is really hot, place it on the dango firmly and create the marks like rabbit ears.
- Use red food color with a toothpick, create the rabbit eyes. Enjoy.
Notes
- Easier to create the seared marks when the dango’s surface is dry.
- Dango should be eaten the day you make it.
