Dorayaki

Like most people, I discovered dorayaki through an anime called Doraemon. The main character, of the same name, is a robotic cat who can pull out endless gadgets from his kangaroo-like pouch. The anime follows his adventures with a nerdy schoolboy named Nobita, who Doraemon is staying with. It's definitely one of my favourite childhood cartoons.

Anyone who is a fan of the anime will know that Doraemon's favourite food is dorayaki, which is essentially two honey flavoured pancakes sandwiched with red bean paste. There is a famous HK chain that sells mini dorayaki, which are equally tasty as they are pricey. In my spare time I like nothing better than reading recipe books, looking at food websites and watching people make food online. I discovered this video of someone making dorayaki and they look like exactly as they should...perfectly brown and perfectly round. I was particularly impressed at time 7:50, which all of you should try!

My Japanese is very substandard but luckily I can make out the ingredients. I had to westernise my dorayaki as I didn't have any red beans to make my own red bean paste. Peanut butter, my homemade lemon and lime curd from last week and some hazelnut and chocolate spread were, however, good substitutes!

Ingredients

200g sugar

3g bicarbonate of soda

20g honey

2 eggs

240g plain flour

160ml water

I won't write down a method for this. As they say, a picture (or video in this case) is worth a thousand words.

These are how mine turned out.

And my fave: peanut butter!

- Aubergine