I recently received a request to make a recipe from the indie game Recettear. Recettear is an adorable game where you play as Recette Lemongrass, an up-and-coming item shopkeep. Each day you can adventure into a dungeon to collect loot in order to stock up on supplies for your shop. Of course, Recette isn’t the one doing the fighting! She hires individuals from the Adventurer’s Guild to get the job done. Recette does join the adventurer as they go collecting items. The game is very light hearted and I really did enjoy it when I played it. The different playstyles of running through a dungeon and playing store manager really work well.
The specific item requested was Taiyaki. Taiyaki is a very popular Japanese street snack. It is typically a fish shaped pastry with a filling. I’ve always wanted to make these at home but was never really sure how to approach it. That was until I realized all I was missing was a taiyaki pan and I could get to cooking these myself. If you’ve never had these before, they are very similar to stuffed pancakes. You can fill these with any sweet filling that you like. Traditionally, they are filled with a sweet red bean paste which you can find at a Japanese market.
Inspired by Just One Cookbook
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
sweet red bean paste
nutella
peanut butter/ jelly
In a bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, and sugar. Combine the egg and milk in a bowl and whisk together until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together until smooth. Transfer to a cup with a pour spout, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat a taiyaki pan over medium-low heat and spray with nonstick spray. Fill each mold about 50% full. Place your filling (about 1-2 tablespoons) of choice in the center of each mold. Pour additional batter over the filling, cover completely and make sure the batter is filled to the top.
Close the pan and flip. Cook for 3 minutes. Flip again and cook for another 3 minutes. Open and check that the taiyaki is golden brown.
Taiyaki
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Filling options
- sweet red bean paste
- nutella
- peanut butter/ jelly
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, and sugar. Combine the egg and milk in a bowl and whisk together until well combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together until smooth. Transfer to a cup with a pour spout, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Heat a taiyaki pan over medium-low heat and spray with nonstick spray. Fill each mold about 50% full. Place your filling (about 1-2 tablespoons) of choice in the center of each mold. Pour additional batter over the filling, cover completely and make sure the batter is filled to the top.
- Close the pan and flip. Cook for 3 minutes. Flip again and cook for another 3 minutes. Open and check that the Taiyaki is golden brown.