Mitarashi Kushi Dango (みたらし団子) Recipe

Mitarashi dango mochi is a Japanese wagashi dessert: a small ball of sticky rice paste, usually served with shoyu caramel sauce (with soy sauce). Yummy and Original!

Difficulty: Easy
Preparation time: 30 min
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

(For 7 skewers)

For the shoyu caramel sauce:

  • 8 cl of water
  • 80 g sugar powder
  • 1 tablespoon of Shoyo sauce (soy sauce))
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch (Maizena type))

For the mochi paste:

  • 200 g sticky rice flour
  • 25 cl of water
  • 80 g sugar powder
  • corn starch (Maizena type)

Preparation

1. Prepare the shoyu caramel sauce: mix all the ingredients and cook 3 to 5 min until the mixture thickens.

Be careful, not to make them too sweet as the dango mochi does not contain sugar in the dough, but they are served with quite sweet caramelized sauce.

2. For mochi paste: mix the rice flour, water and sugar in a glass bowl. Cook this mixture for 30 seconds in the microwave at medium power (about 600 Watts). Remove from the oven, mix the mixture with a spoon and put 30 seconds back in the microwave. Continue to alternate between cooking and mixing until the dough is thick but remains supple and sticky. (You will have to cook at least 5 to 6 times).

3. The mochi paste cools very quickly. It needs to stay warm, so you can work on it easily. Divide it into small balls, about 21 total and place them on a plate sprinkled with cornstarch.
4. Cook the dango mochi in a large pot of boiling water, not salted. Let them cook for about 5 minutes, until the balls rise to the surface.
5. Drain them and dip them in ice water. Drain them again and prick them on wooden spikes, three by three.
6. Serve the dango mochi with the shoyu caramel sauce.

Mochi paste was originally made from crushed cooked rice. But this traditional recipe takes quite a long time to implement. There is now ready made mochi flour sold at stores, which is perfect for making daifuku mochi too. But you can also use sticky rice flour for that purpose.