Dorayaki (Japanese Sweet Pancakes)

A few years ago I tried my hands on making dorayaki because Ash absolutely loves them. Time moved on and Ash grown up, now with a little brother in the house too. But his love for dorayaki stayed the same and it is also the case for little Ellison. My lovely friend Bonnie would send us food parcel from Hong Kong that contains a few packs of these beauty.

Obviously, what the kids want, what the kids get… so I have been making them once in a while and I have been trying different recipes. Here’s one quite different to the last one I tried, I find this one easier to flip but texture is a bit less spongy. But check out my other attempt here.

Annie

Dorayaki (Japanese Sweet Pancakes)

A classic Japanese dorayaki recipe - soft honey pancakes and a gently sweet traditional anko bean filling.

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Course: Cake, Dessert

Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients Equipment Method Video Notes

Ingredients

  

• 2 eggs
• 50 g caster sugar
• 80 g cake flour or plain flour
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 15 g honey
• 10 ml water
• 200 g red bean (anko) paste

Equipment

• 1 Big mixing bowl
• 1 Whisk (or fork!)
• 1 Frying pan
• 1 Spatula

Method

 

Making the batter

1. Get a big mixing bowl, crack the 2 eggs in the bowl, add sugar, flour, baking powder, and mix.
2. Add honey and water, mix again until combined. Try not to overmix to keep the pancakes fluffy and not rubbery!

Cooking the pancakes

1. Have your anko bean paste ready with a spoon on the side.
2. Now get your frying pan out (ideally non-stick), turn to medium-high heat, using a big spoon or ice cream scoop, transfer some batter into the pan to cook. (Important to use the same amount of batter for every pancake, as we need 2 pancakes to sandwich together to make 1 dorayaki!)
3. When small bubbles begin to form, turn the pancakes over. It should be a lovely light brown colour.
4. Once you have 2 freshly cooked pancake, you can assemble the dorayaki - with the brown side facing down (brown side is the outside of the dorayaki), place a dollop of bean paste, it needs to be domed to create that bulgy in the middle shape. Then cover with another pancake, this time brown side facing up, gently pinch the sides together and they should stick to seal in the sweet filling.
5. Repeat until you use up all the batter (or bean paste!)

Video

Notes

1. I like to cook and assemble as I go, but you can cook the whole batch and then assemble all at once. I just find that it's easier to 'seal' while it's still hot. But of course you can just keep the pancakes warm while you finish frying the whole batch of batter.
2. Alternative fillings:
   • Custard - You can definitely replace the anko paste with custard, and my kids love that even more. You can make your own custard from scratch, or just from a packet of bird's custard powder! As long as it's thick and holds its shape, it will work!! (try adding cocoa powder to your custard to make chocolate custard)
   • Cream and strawberries - Whip up some double cream with some caster sugar till stiff, slice some strawberries up and this makes a great summer dorayaki! But you need to eat this quick as fresh cream don't last long, and DON'T assemble while the pancake is hot! It will melt the cream.

Let me know how you get on with these, or if you made your own adjustments!