Mitarashi Dango (Sweet Soy Glazed Mochi Dumplings)
Mitarashi dango is one of Japan's oldest street sweets: chewy rice dumplings on a skewer, grilled or boiled, under a glossy glaze that's sweet and salty at once. Most people abroad meet it at festivals or anime first — but it's genuinely one of the easiest Japanese sweets to make at home.
This is a deliberately small batch — two skewers, made from just four ingredients — because that's how I make it for myself. It's naturally vegan (the glaze is soy sauce, sugar and starch — no butter, no eggs anywhere) and gluten-free if your soy sauce is tamari.
Ingredients
Dumplings
- Shiratamako (glutinous rice flour)see substitutions1/3 cup
- Water2 3/4 Tbsp
Mitarashi glaze
- Cane sugar1 1/2 Tbsp
- Soy sauce1 Tbsp
- Potato starchor cornstarch1/2 Tbsp
- Water1/4 cup + 1 tsp
Nutrition
per serving🛒 Ingredient notes & substitutions
Shiratamako: Look for "shiratamako" or "glutinous rice flour" at Japanese groceries. Mochiko (sweet rice flour, common in US stores) works too — the texture comes out slightly softer and less bouncy, but still very good. Regular rice flour will NOT work.
Cane sugar: Any sugar is fine. Japanese recipes often use kibi (unrefined cane) sugar for its light caramel note.
Instructions
Add the water to the shiratamako a little at a time, kneading by hand until the dough is about as soft as an earlobe — that's the traditional Japanese doneness test, and it really works.
Divide the dough into 6 pieces and roll each into a ball.
Boil a pot of water and cook the dumplings until they float, then 2 minutes more. Turn off the heat.
Have a bowl of ice water ready. Transfer the cooked dumplings into it.
Once cool, thread 3 dumplings onto each bamboo skewer.
Combine the glaze ingredients in a small pan and heat, stirring the whole time — the starch clumps if you walk away.
Pour the glaze over the dumplings. Ten minutes in the fridge makes them even better.
Tips
Don't over-chill the finished dango — too long in the fridge and the dumplings turn firm. Ten minutes is the sweet spot.
The glaze recipe makes a generous amount on purpose. You'll want the extra.