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Shrove Tuesday ideas

February 24, 2020 2 Comments Filed Under: Baking, Desserts and sweets, Food, Recipes, Travel, Uncategorized

  • Japanese pancake recipes: Dorayaki  and fluffy pancakes pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

I just had a big birthday, the exact number of which shall remain private. In the spirit of self-care, I decided to gift myself a much longed for trip to Japan.

What inspiration! Japanese food is exquisite, everything is done beautifully, from the simplest cup of tea to jewel-cut sushi, artful bowl of noodles or the diverse and intriguing breakfast including rice, soup, fish, pickles and slimy natto beans.

It is less well known that the Japanese are also brilliant at European baking, imbuing it with an oriental twist. A sponge cake will be as light as air. Pancakes are tall, fluffy soufflés: you feel as if you are scoffing a cloud. I had my actual birthday cake (s) at a Tokyo patisserie, Hidemi Sugino, eating pillowy chestnut and yuzu gateaux.

I spent an afternoon on an old wooden ‘cake train’ where I was served the equivalent of afternoon tea while swishing past snowy temples and frosty rice paddies. Despite several cakes, the baking was so feather-like, I didn’t feel stuffed at all. Even the sandwiches, canary yellow egg salad or the popular fruit sandwiches with pink strawberries and pale cream cheese, are weightless and dainty.

This coming Shrove Tuesday is about using up rich foods before Lent, hence the name Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Virtually every culture possesses some kind of pancake, sweet or savoury, within their cuisine; think of Sri Lankan hoppers, French crepes, Indian masala dosas, Italian farinata, Polish latkes, Venezuelan arepas, Russian blinis. Here is some Japanese influenced recipes which are not too difficult to make. North London has a thriving Japanese community; you can buy ingredients and ready-made foods at shops like Natural Natural in Finchley Rd and Atari-ya with branches in Golders Green, Finchley and Acton.

Japanese fluffy pancakes pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
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Japanese fluffy pancakes

Similar to American pancakes but diaphanously lofty, drizzled with maple syrup or scattered with fruit. I used seasonal ‘bubblegum’ plums from South Africa.

Ingredients

  • 150 g self-raising flour, sifted
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp vegetable or seed oil
  • 180 ml whole milk
  • 3 tbsps yoghurt or fromage frais
  • To garnish:
  • Maple syrup
  • Salted butter

Instructions

  • Put the dry ingredients into a large bowl then make a well in the centre, adding the eggs, oil and yoghurt. Stir together, gradually whisking in the milk.
  • Preheat a flat frying pan or crepière, rub a little oil over the pan and the inside of the crumpet rings.
  • Over a low heat, fill the crumpet rings 3/4 full. Place a domed lid over the frying pan, making a kind of mini-oven. Cook for 10 minutes then flip over. The fluffy pancakes should be 2 cms in height.
  • Serve warm with maple syrup and salted butter.

Dorayaki pancakes pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
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Dorayaki pancakes

These are a little like ‘Scotch pancakes’ but sandwiched together with chocolate paste or fruit and cream.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
  • 70 g plain or cake flour, sifted
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • Filling: cream and fruit or Nutella or sweet bean, Azuki

Instructions

  • Whisk eggs, sugar, honey, vanilla in a large bowl.
  • Add in the flour and baking powder until well combined but don’t overmix, it makes the pancakes tough.
  • Leave the bowl in a cool place for 15 minutes. Don’t stir the batter, you want the bubbles.
  • Preheat a flat frying pan or crepière, rub a little butter over the pan. Drop a spoonful directly downwards onto the pan, it should form a circle. Cook until golden brown then flip over. Repeat until the mixture is used up.
  • Once cooked, leave the Dorayaki on a cooling rack.
  • Press together in a sandwich (or sando as the Japanese call them) using your filling of choice.
Castella Cake pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
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Castella cake

Popular in Nagasaki, a Japanese take on a Portuguese cake, using a technique called sabayon. Baked in wooden boxes traditionally, but a loaf tin is sufficient. Options include flavouring with matcha green tea or citrus.
Course Afternoon Tea, Cake, Dessert
Cuisine Japan, Portugal
Keyword Cake, Castella cake, Japanese desserts, Nagasaki, Sabayon
Serves 10

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp hot water
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 200 g caster sugar
  • 170 g strong bread flour, well sifted

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 170C.
  • Line a loaf tin with parchment.
  • Mix the honey and hot water together, stirring.
  • Make the sabayon by putting a bowl over a saucepan of hot water (a bain-marie) but not touching the water. Whisk the eggs and sugar until they become thick and fluffy. When the temperature reaches 43Cº remove from the heat. Add in the honey water and continue to whisk.
  • When the mixture is four times the volume, add in the flour by thirds, whisking.
  • Pour the mixture into the lined loaf tin and draw a zig zag line in the batter to remove large bubbles.
  • Bake for 45 minutes. Once the top is brown, cover with tinfoil and continue to bake.
  • Remove from the oven, turn onto a plate then cover with cling film. Leave for at least a day before serving.
  • Delicious with a cup of green tea.

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Comments

  1. mohan kumar

    March 2, 2020 at 7:05 am

    This look so fresh and delecious.your recipe sounds good with honey.

    Reply

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  1. An interview with Prue and Peta Leith. says:
    November 15, 2020 at 9:29 pm

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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