Tricolor Dango Recipe

With this easy Tricolor Dango dumpling recipe you can enjoy a sweet and chewy festival favorite.

These traditional dumplings were enjoyed while celebrating the arrival of spring in Japan. They are usually served with green tea.

These sweet and pretty dangos are made by mixing edible sakura flowers and matcha powder into the rice flour dough and shaping it into bite-size balls. A Japanese dessert like this is the perfect finish to a Japanese-inspired afternoon tea.

Tricolor Dango AKA Hanami Dango

The Hanami Dango, also known as Tricolor Dango is a popular Japanese springtime dessert, which has even been made into an iPhone emoji!🍡

Hanami literally translates to “flower looking” which is where the name Hanami Dango comes from. That’s probably why Japanese people enjoy sharing hanami dangos with families and friends during the flower looking party under sakura trees.

Why Pink, White & Green colors for dango

As it’s introduced on Chopstick Chronicles, the three colors of dangos are supposed to represent new growth (green), snow (white), and peach flowers (pink) (I’m acturally surprised to see it’s “peach” flower instead of “sakura” flower🌸).

I have also heard a saying that the three colors represented the life of sakura flower: As spring comes, sakura trees will firstly grow pink bunds, followed by white petals, finally when the blossoms fall, there will be green leaves.

That’s also why we have to insert the green ones first, followed by the white ones in the middle, and then the pink ones at the top. That’s also why there’s no yellow hanami dango.

We eat the dangos in the order of pink, white, and green to celebrate the short and beautiful life of sakura flowers – in the order of pink buds, white petals, and green leaves. 

Which explanation of the dango colors sounds more reasonable to you? 😀

Tricolor dango in Genshin Impact and Naruto

Tricolor Dango is a recovery dish in an extremely popular game called Genshin Impact. Upon consumption, the potion heals 32% of the character’s max HP, plus an additional 1,250 HP. 

It’s interesting that Genshin Impact even provide us with a tricolor dango recipe: 

Did you know that tricolor dango is Itachi Uchiha‘s favorite snack?😁

What Is Better for Dango – Rice Flour or Glutinous Rice Flour?

I used to make Dango with only glutinous rice flour and food colorings.

But according to Genshin Impact’s recipe, we will need milk, snapdragon, Sakura bloom, and rice to make Tricolor Dango.

So, I tried to use dried edible Sakura petals to make pink Dango and blend regular rice flour with glutinous rice flour to make the Dango dough. They turned out to be chewy pretty and flavorful.

Only using glutinous rice flour would make the dango sticky and hard to chew, especially when I’m wearing braces.

The texture of rice flour is similar to that of wheat flour, whereas glutinous rice flour produces a chewy, sticky texture suitable for mochis or foods with little structure.

Using a combination of regular rice flour and glutinous rice flour can make the Dango to be chewy and bouncy at the same time.

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The ratio I suggest is 1 portion of glutinous rice flour: ½ portion of regular rice flour.

Feel free to adjust the ratio, if you prefer chewier Dango, add more glutinous rice flour, if you prefer bouncier Dango, add more regular rice flour.

Are there any Good Substitutions?

According to Run Away Rice:

“Glutinous Rice Flour or Rice Flour can be substituted if it is a minor ingredient:

• For wheat flour (gluten-free) and all-purpose flour (gluten-full), substitute rice flour.
• Tapioca starch or potato starch may be substituted with glutinous rice flour. Even though these starches aren’t exact matches, they provide similar chewy and sticky properties.

Don’t attempt to cook the recipe if the main ingredient is Rice Flour or Glutinous Rice Flour.”

Obviously, rice flour and glutinous rice flour are always the main ingredients in dango recipes.

So please do not substitute them with all purpose flour or tapioca flour, otherwise you should just make some bagels or bobas (see my blueberry bagel recipe or strawberry boba recipe if you want).

Top Tips for the Best Tricolor Dango

• Always soak the skewers – To prevent splinters from bamboo skewers, soak them in cold water for at least 30 minutes. This can be done just before you start cooking. It will take a while to finish cooking everything.

• Cook dango balls in the correct order – It’s safest to boil the dango balls from lightest to darkest, start with white, then pink, and finally green. It’s to prevent the colors from staining the water and changing its appearance.

However, I actually tried to boil all the tricolor Dango balls together in a large pot. These white Dangos were not dyed by the other colorful ones. So it should be fine to boil them all together if you want to save some time.

• Soak your Dangos after they’ve been boiled – Soak boiled Dangos in an ice bath until they are completely cooled down to create a bouncy texture.

The iced water will immediately stop the cooking process and make the dango balls firm up slightly on the surface so that they won’t stick to your teeth.

Just like boba, dango also hardens once it gets cold. Therefore, make sure you don’t soak them in ice water for too long. Once the surface of the dango balls feels cold, take them out from the ice bath immediately.

• Use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients – Scales are the most accurate way to measure flour. You will have a more precise texture for your Dango dough if you do this. An extra 5 grams of water could cause your dango dough to be too sticky. Also, your dough balls will also be the same perfect size if you measure them.

• Don’t add more than one drop of food coloring –  Sakura blossoms were only able to slightly pinken the Dango. If you want your Dango to be obviously pink, add a drop of food coloring or ½ tsp of strawberry powder.

But remember that dango will intensify in color as it cooks, don’t add more than a drop of pink food coloring or too much matcha, unless you want them to be extremely deep in color.

• Sauce or toppings – Tricolor Dango is delicious as is, but can also be topped with sweet soy glaze, sweet red bean paste (anko), sweetened sesame paste, or matcha paste.

• How to store leftover dango – My recipes are usually in small portions, since I hate to waste food. You will only get 12 dango balls (4 skewers of dango) by following this recipe.

    Since dango will turn hard in the refrigerator, I’d recommend wrap any leftover dangos with plastic food wrap, leave them in room temperature, and finish them within 2 days. 

Now let’s start making tricolor dango!

How to make Tricolor Dango

EQUIPMENT

• Bamboo skewers

• Measuring cups

 

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup rice flour

• ½ cup powdered sugar

• 1 cup glutinous rice flour

• ½ cup cold milk, soy milk, or water
• 5  dried edible sakura blossom (or ½ tsp strawberry powder or red food coloring)

• 1 drop red food coloring

• ½ tsp matcha powder (or green food coloring)

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS

1. Soak 4-5 bamboo skewers in cold water for at least 30 minutes. (You can soak them right before your start. The whole cooking process is going to take longer than 30 minutes.)

2. Soak 5 dried edible sakura blossoms in cold water for 15 minutes.

3. Rinse and pat dry the soaked sakura blossoms with a paper towel. Carefully remove the stem, finely chop or crush the petals into mud texture.

4. Add 1 cup of glutinous rice flour, ½ cup of rice flour, ½ cup of powdered sugar, and ½ cup of cold milk, soy milk, or water in a large bowl.

5. Use clean hands to combine all the ingredients and knead them into a smooth dough. (Add 1 to 3 extra tbsps of milk/water if the dough feels too dry or fall apart.)

6. Divide the dango dough into 3 equal pieces. Add crushed sakura petals to one piece of the dough, add 1/2 tsp of matcha powder to another piece of the dough.

7. Optionally add 1 drop of red food coloring to the sakura dango dough for a pinker color.

8. Knead each piece of the dough until the color is evenly distributed.

9. Divide each dough in different colors into 4 equal pieces, roll into round balls. Each dango ball should weigh about 28g. (If you prefer smaller dango balls, you can make 5 balls in each color, then each dango ball should be about 22g.) This recipe will make 12 large balls, or 15 smaller balls in total.

10. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Boil tricolor dango balls over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until floating. (You can optionally boil them in separate batches in the order of white, pink, and green. I tried to boil all the tricolor dango balls together in a large pot. The white dango balls weren’t dyed by the other colorful dangos. So it’s fine to boil them all together.)

11. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked tricolor dango balls to a large bowl filled with ice water.

12. Insert cooled dango balls onto a bamboo skewer in the order of green, white, then pink.

13. Optionally serve with brown sugar syrupdrizzle. (See my warabi mochi recipe for how to make brown sugar syrup easily at home.)

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