Shiratama Dessert Recipes: How to Make Shiratama Dango

Shiratama dango (白玉団子) is a type of mochi (a chewy, dumpling-shaped rice cake dessert) made with shiratamako, a glutinous rice flour made from Japanese short-grain rice. Dango is a variety of wagashi (和菓子), traditional Japanese sweets served with tea. This simple recipe for Shiratama dango just calls for sweet rice flour, water, and sugar, providing a blank canvas for various flavorings and toppings.

Common variations of Shiratama dango include goma dango (with a sesame glaze), Anko dango (with sweet red bean paste), Mitarashi dango (with a sweet soy glaze), Cha dango (flavored with matcha powder), and Hanami dango (green, pink, and white dango served to celebrate cherry blossom season).

Shiratamako and mochiko flours are glutinous rice flours that you can use to make dango and are available for purchase in Japanese food specialty stores. However, there are some distinctions between the flours:

• Production: Mochiko involves dehydrating and grinding rice into fine, powdery flour. Shiratamako production involves a dried rice and water slurry, which yields a more coarse and flaky texture than mochiko.
• Starch content: Both of these flours count rice as the primary ingredient and are thus gluten-free, but mochiko flour has a higher starch content than shiratamako flour, yielding a less stretchy dango dough. Dango made with mochiko is also likely to harden faster after cooking because of this lessened elasticity.
• Flavor: Mochiko also has a stronger flavor than shiratamako, which has a more subtle, refined flavor. Use slightly less water in the dough when substituting mochiko flour for shiratamako flour in your homemade dango.

Once you’ve mastered the basics of these simple, satisfying mochi balls, you can incorporate them into countless sweet Japanese dessert recipes. Follow these tips to become a dango pro:

1. 1. Knead until pliable. Overworking the glutinous dumpling dough could result in hard, overly chewy dango. Knead the dough just to the point that it is slightly pliable before cooking the dango.
2. 2. Shape before boiling. Shape all of the Shiratama mochis before boiling them in hot water, which will ensure that each of the balls cooks evenly.
3. 3. Experiment with toppings. Dress your Shiratama dango in a variety of sweet and savory Asian-inspired toppings. Garnish the dango with a warm sesame glaze, Mitarashi syrup (a sweet-and-savory soy sauce-based syrup), Kuromitsu syrup (a molasses-like Japanese sugar syrup), red bean paste, matcha powder, silken tofu, green tea ice cream, and fresh chopped fruit.
4. 4. Store properly. It’s best to eat your Shiratama dango immediately after cooking, but you can store leftover rice dumplings in the refrigerator in an airtight container filled with water. Reheat the dango by dropping them in boiling water, allowing them to soften, and transferring them to a bowl of ice water to cool. You can store Shiratama dango in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month.