Just about ever weekend I find myself cooking up some kind of pancake. I have become the "Pancake King" in my family. I make all sorts of pancakes including Danish “aebilskivers”, French crepes, Dutch babies, and of course the traditional buttermilk or sour dough pancakes too. Now I have a new pancake from Japan. IHOP has nothing on me! While the video clip was well produced, the recipe in the caption left much to be desired. My main complaint being that it gave time for cooking but no temperature. For the recipe that follows, I did the work for you, so you at least know where to start. The second thing that helps these work better is the use of a tall-sided, no-stick pan with a glass lid. The tall sides help hold in heat to surround the pancakes as they cook and rise. The lid lets you watch them cook and keep from burning.
Instructions: 1. Separate eggs into two bowls. One for the yolks and one for the whites. Set aside the whites. In the bowl with the yolks add milk and vanilla. Whisk together then add flour and baking powder and hand whisk until combined and smooth. 2. In the bowl with the egg whites, slowly add granulated sugar as you use an electric mixer to whip the whites to the point that they have stiff peaks. Fancy chefs call this a "meringue." 3. Fold about half of the meringue gently into the egg yolk/flour mixture folding as you go then add the rest. Carefully combining them until just blended. DO NOT OVER MIX. 4. Heat a medium to large high sided pan with a lid (preferably glass) on low heat. Add a little butter or spray oil to the pan just to give it an extra layer of non-stick. 5. Ladle batter in four, 1/3 Cup dollops of batter around the pan leaving room for expansion. You want them to spread to about 3 inches wide. Once you have these four cakes started, add another 1/3 Cup Dollop on top of each of those again. Sprinkling in a tablespoon of water to the pan and cover with the lid. 6. Cooking time is going to vary slightly. These are cooked low and slow. Practice patience and don’t dare try to cook these fast. They will burn. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Using a wide spatula gently check the bottom to see that it is light golden brown. If so turn the pancake over, add another spoon of water, cover, and let cook for another 3-4 minutes. Plate immediately. Serve these with fruit, berries, and whipped cream, or top with butter and syrup. Enjoy. Don’t let the seemingly complex steps of this recipe fool you. This is really an easy recipe so long as you monitor your cooking temperature and times. As you make your pancakes you may have to adjust the temperature a smidgen higher or lower for your stove/pan combination. Once you know the sweet spot, make a note of this for future batches. These are sweet, fluffy and a change from your everyday pancakes. Certainly they are the kind of thing you might pack for eating just plain on the road, in your car, on the way up to the stream or as a snack as you take a break between fishing holes. In my research I found a very similar recipe on Instagram by Kristin Morita. There is a nice video on her IG to see some of the cooking. She has lots of other Japanese dishes too. Let me know if you gave the recipe a try and how you liked them in the comments below.
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