INTRODUCTION

I do not know when I get to know this thick pancake but I remember it is quite trendy nowadays in Japan. Google the Japanese name “厚いパンケーキ” will produce lots of beautiful attractive pancakes.  Looking at the thick and tall pancakes, it captured my attention.. The pancake stands tall and proud top with a piece of butter and drizzle sparingly with honey.. Though the name uses Japanese thick pancake, I cannot find related information in Japanese websites . May be it is a new introduction by certain Japanese restaurants.

This is a self challenge and I know though it looks easy, but there are lots of difficulties that may be encountered. These include:

• The hard bottom part of the cake as heavy batter may sink to the bottom of the cake
• If the heat is not correct, it can result in burnt bottom
• Uncooked centre that worries me most since it is such a tall cake prepare using a pan over the stoves.

Well, I managed to concur myself and prepared an ultra high pancake which is about 6-7 cm high though the normal thick and fluffy pancake may only be 3-4 cm. I have no regret as I know if I am able to prepare this thick pancake, I can always prepare a shorter pancake if I wished. In fact, it is not my intention to prepare this ultra thick pancake, the risk of undercooked is there. The reason that resulted in the thick pancake is because I only prepared 4 moulds, and I divided the batter to these 4 moulds as equally as I can. As these pancakes takes time to pan fry, I do not intend to pan fry for another round. I am impatience I just put all the remaining into the 4 moulds.  Only after it is cooked i realized it is very thick.

Since it is thick, I have taken extra precaution in the pan frying. It took much longer than expected timing but the pancake is soft, fluffy, no shrinkage and most important of all, the centre is well cooked. Kids are very surprised and happy to eat this special shape pancake with honey and butter.

You may ask how is the texture? The texture is slightly different from the traditional pancake that is moister and chewier. It resembles the texture of a light butter cake. This is expected as it is thicker and the cooking time are much longer. Therefore, more moisture was lost during the cooking process and hence it can be the same as the chewier traditional pancake. The batter also cannot be too watery as it will sip out and become a pool instead of a cake like structure.

Do you need a special mould? I did not use a special mould but I did homemade some casings using materials easily available at home. In fact, you have mouse rings or British muffins rings, you can always used that for the preparation but you must have quite a number of them to save time of preparation unless you pan fry it one by one.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 4-6 pancakes depends on thickness

• 4 – 6 pieces of 12 cm x 25 cm long baking paper
• 4 – 6 pieces of 12 cm x 25 cm long aluminium foil
• One cutter with the dimension of 6 cm diameter tall and 6 cm tall  (can use your prefer dimension)

• 200 grams of self raising flour
• 120 grams of buttermilk or milk or cream
• 2 eggs
• 50 grams of melted butter
• 3 tablespoons of castor sugar
• 4-6 moulds (depending on the height you prefer)

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Place the aluminium foil on top of the baking paper. Fold into half such that the aluminium foil is covered by the baking paper and the dimension become approximately 6 cm x 25 cm.

• Wrap this long piece of paper along ring cutter and fasten the edges by stapling. Take out the ring cutter carefully and perform the same for the others.

• Crack the eggs and separate into egg yolk and egg white.

• In a bowl, put buttermilk/milk/cream, egg yolks and melted butter. Stir until well combined. Sieve the flour and stir until it forms a thick batter.

• Beat the egg white until foamy. Add the sugar gradually. Continue beating until it is glossy and reach the soft peak.

• Add 1/3 of the meringue into the batter and fold until well combined. Perform the same for the remaining 2/3. Set aside.

• Heat up a non stick pan using lowest heat. Put the self-made mould, and pour the batter into the 4-6 moulds equally. Cover the pan and pan fry for 6-8 minutes. You can add about 10 ml of water to the pan and the water vapour emitted to expedite the process of cooking. Occasionally change the position of the pan to ensure even heating.

• After 8 minutes, take out the mould carefully, use a scissor to cut off the excess top.  Quickly invert the pancake into the pan. It is okay that some uncooked batter on top may spill out to the pan. as it will harden eventually.

• Close the lid and continue pan fry for another 6-8 minutes. Add small quantity of water and let the water vapour to expedite the cooking. After 8 minutes,  use a skewer to insert into the centre and ensure that it comes out clean. This step is very important. The pancake is ready to be served with your preferred toppings and fruits.

Note:

• The timing is for preference as it will eventually depends on the thickness of your batter, how big and tall of your pancake and how big is your stove heat. Thinner pancakes will be much faster. The final test is still the skewer test. If you smell burnt at the bottom and the centre is not cook, you can transfer the pancake out, cut out the mould and use microwave to cook the centre for one minutes.

CONCLUSION

Life is bored and I feel rather funny to share this type of trendy unique recipe and I do not expect many readers to try it. However, from a brighter perspective, this small extra effort of preparing pancake can give some added surprise to your family members or even your kids. A normal cake or a pancake is irrelevant in my humble opinion as it is just a delicious breakfast or snack item. As to be how tall you want your pancake to be, I will leave the decision to you and the normal thicker Japanese style pancake is 3-4 cm tall as opposed to the 6-7 cm tall as you saw in the images.

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