Japanese Pancakes are good for breakfast or morning and afternoon tea breaks. The difference between these pancakes and the normal ones are in the meringue. For normal pancakes, we just mix all the ingredients and fry. They are round and big but thin. For Japanese Pancakes, the beating of the meringue is important; the egg whites are whipped with sugar which give the pancake its fluffy nature. Vinegar is used to stabilise the meringue to hold its form. Usually Japanese Pancakes are fried using a ring mould. The size of these pancakes are dependent on the size of the ring. The pancakes are soft, fluffy and tall. For my mini pancakes, I have not used the ring mould; instead, I just piped the batter directly onto the non-stick pan.
Ingredients:
- 2 egg yolks (I use Grade B eggs - about 68 g egg with shell.)
- 20 ml or g full cream milk
- 10 ml or g vegetable oil (I use corn oil.)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla essence (Optional.)
- 40 g all-purpose flour
- 3 egg whites (From eggs of about 68 g with shell.)
- 1 tsp vinegar (I use rice vinegar.)
- 50 g castor sugar (You may reduce or add more.)
Method:
- Add the egg yolks into a mixing bowl.
- Add full cream milk into the bowl.
- Add vegetable oil into the bowl.
- Use a whisk to mix the three ingredients till they are well combined.
- Add the vanilla essence. Continue to mix till the vanilla essence is incorporated.
- Sift the flour into the egg yolk mixture.
- Mix till the batter is smooth without any lumps. Set aside.
- Add the egg whites into a dry clean bowl.
- Add vinegar into the bowl.
- Use a hand held mixer to whip the egg whites.
- Once big bubbles are formed, start adding the sugar in three batches, mixing well after each addition.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks.
- Fold the egg whites gently into the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches, taking care not to deflate the meringue.
- Transfer the batter into a piping bag. (You may use the ring mould.)
- Heat up a non-stick pan.
- Wipe some oil onto the pan using a kitchen towel.
- Pipe the batter onto the pan in a circular manner going up vertically till 2.5 to 3 cm high. (I made about 5 pancakes in one pan.)
- Cover the pan.
- Let the pancake cook under very small fire.
- Open the cover after about 3-4 minutes and flip the pancakes to the other side.
- Once the other side is brown, remove the pancake to be cooled on a metal rack.
- You may serve the pancakes with jam or butter if you wish.