Dorayaki are a delicious Japanese treat, but unfortunately much more expensive and harder to find over here in the UK – so I decided to try making my own! Usually red bean paste would be used as the filling, but I decided to go for something a little different and made a green tea crème patissière to sandwich the two pancakes together – mostly down to the fact that I’d bought matcha powder recently and wanted an excuse to try it out!

Ingredients

For the crème patissière:

• 4 medium egg yolks
• 65g caster sugar
• 20g plain flour
• 20g cornflour
• 1-2 tsp. matcha powder
• 300ml whole milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the pancakes:

• 4 large eggs
• 140 g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 160 g self-raising flower
• 1-2 tbsp. water
• 2 tbsp. oil

How to make it

First, prepare the green tea crème patissière.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar for a few minutes until a pale gold colour. Whisk in the flour, cornflour and matcha powder and set aside.

Put the milk and vanilla extract in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring frequently. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool for 30 seconds. Slowly pour half of the hot milk onto the egg mixture, whisking all the time, then return the mixture to the pan. Bring the mixture back to the boil and simmer for one minute, whisking continuously, or until smooth.

Pour the cream into a clean bowl, cover with cling-film to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until needed.

Flour, cornflour and green tea powder

Looking more like green tea

Custard consistency

Next, you’ll want to make the pancakes.

Combine the eggs, sugar and honey in a large bowl and whisk well. Sift the flour into the bowl and incorporate. Then put the bowl in the fridge to cool for 15 minutes.

Take the bowl out of the fridge and stir in a little water, half a tablespoon at a time, until you have the right consistency – you don’t want the batter to be too thin or the pancakes won’t be as fluffy.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Pour a little oil into the pan (preferably vegetable oil, as we found olive oil didn’t work too well), and use a paper towel to spread it evenly across the pan.

Use a ladle to pour the batter into the pan, making sure you don’t make them too big – we used a silicone mould for making fried eggs to ensure we got a consistent size each time. As soon as you see the surface start to bubble flip the pancake over, otherwise it may start to burn. Transfer each pancake to a plate and cover with a damp towel while you continue making the rest of the pancakes.

Once all the pancakes are ready, you can assemble the dorayaki. Spoon the filling between two pancakes, making sure there is more in the middle than at the edges so that you get the traditional dorayaki shape, with the middle the thickest part.

Best eaten immediately – or wrap the dorayaki in cling film and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Add ingredients to bowl…

…and whisk!

Assemble the dorayaki

Variations

The obvious choice is red bean paste, as it is the traditional filling for dorayaki. Depending on where you live, you may also be able to find it in Asian supermarkets, making the whole process a lot quicker as you don’t even have to make the filling yourself!

Otherwise, other fillings I’d like to try are:

• Chocolate ganache
• Zingy lemon crème patissière

You could also add a little matcha powder to the pancake batter for green tea pancakes. I’ve seen these in Asian supermarkets with a red bean paste filling.