A classic Japanese confection, Dorayaki is a honey pancake sandwich filled with sweet red bean paste called anko. It‘s a wildly popular snack and dessert among children and adults alike in Japan.
Dorayaki (どら焼き) is best described as a dessert with red bean filling between two slices of sweet fluffy pancakes. If you are familiar with Japanese cartoons from the ’70s, you probably know this dessert from the anime character Doraemon who is crazy about this snack and falls for any trap involving them.
Different Types of Dorayaki
Besides Doraemon, my entire family including my children and husband all love this snack. This traditional Japanese confectionery is most commonly filled with sweet azuki red bean paste called anko; however, custard cream (recipe), chestnuts (kuri), and cream (matcha cream, cream with fruits, etc) are also popular.
The soft moist honey pancake with sweet red bean filling goes perfectly with warm and slightly bitter Japanese green tea. I am drooling just thinking about these tasty pancake snacks.
Golden Brown Dorayaki Pancakes
For perfect golden brown pancakes, make sure to wipe off all excess oil on the frying pan’s surface. If you leave oil streaks on the pan, the pancakes will not turn into nice golden color without spots. Don’t worry if the first few don’t turn out perfect, just keep going and you’ll get the hang of it very quickly.
Most of the Japanese confectionery stores in Japan carry these traditional sweets. Here in the U.S., Japanese and Asian grocery stores carry packaged dorayaki. They taste good, but homemade ones are very easy to make and I hope you give this homemade recipe a try!
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Dorayaki (Japanese Red Bean Pancake)
Video
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
- 140 g sugar (⅔ cup + ½ Tbsp)
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour (plain flour) (weigh your flour or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1–2 Tbsp water (adjust to achieve the desired batter consistency)
- neutral oil (for greasing the pan)
- 1.1 lb sweet red bean paste (anko) (you can make Homemade Anko)
Instructions
- Before You Start: I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.Gather all the ingredients.
To Make the Batter
- In a large bowl, combine 4 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell), 140 g sugar (⅔ cup + ½ Tbsp), and 2 Tbsp honey. Whisk well until the mixture becomes fluffy.
- Sift 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour (plain flour) and 1 tsp baking powder into the bowl with the egg mixture and mix until combined. Put the bowl in the refrigerator to rest the batter for 15 minutes.
- After resting, the batter should be relaxed and slightly smoother. Now, stir in half of the 1–2 Tbsp water and check the consistency. It should be similar to pancake batter. Add more of the water, as needed, until you achieve the right consistency. Depending on the size of the eggs and how accurate your flour measurement is, the water amount may vary.
To Cook the Honey Pancakes
- Heat a large nonstick frying pan over the lowest heat setting for 5 minutes. It‘s best to take your time and heat the pan slowly. When it is thoroughly heated with no hot spots, increase the heat to medium low. Dip a paper towel in neutral oil and coat the bottom of the pan with oil. Then, use another paper towel to remove the oil completely. This is the key to evenly golden brown Dorayaki pancakes. With a ladle or a small measuring cup (I use a 4 Tbsp measuring cup), pour 3 Tbsp of the batter from 3 inches (8 cm) above the pan to create a pancake that‘s 3 inches (8 cm) in diameter. Cook one pancake at a time.
- When you see the surface of the batter starting to bubble, flip the pancake over and cook the other side. (With my stove and frying pan, it takes 1 minute and 15–30 seconds to cook one side and 20–30 seconds for the other side.) When done, transfer it to a plate and cover it with a damp towel to prevent it from drying out. Grease the pan between batches, as needed. Continue making the rest of the pancakes; you can make about 12 pancakes.
To Assemble the Dorayaki
- Assemble the Dorayaki by making sandwiches using two pancakes and a scoop of the 1.1 lb sweet red bean paste (anko) as filling. Put more red bean paste in the center of the pancakes so the sandwich‘s middle is thicker than the edges and the Dorayaki's overall shape is curved. Wrap the Dorayaki with plastic wrap until ready to serve.
To Store
- The leftovers can be wrapped in plastic and stored in a cool place for 2 days. They also can be put in a freezer bag and stored in the freezer for a month.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on October 28, 2011. The new post includes updated images and the new video.
This is an amazing recipe. You should keep this up.
Hi Ng! Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing your recipe. I love using recipes of yours the instructions are so clear and precise.
My dishes using your recipes are always successful, thanks for giving me the confidence boost in my cooking skills.
Hi Bee! Aww I’m so happy to hear you enjoy making my recipes and thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Havent been a succes turn out bad for me, was uncook in the center and too think. Ive add a bit of Milk and it was comestible, since it tasted nothing ive add vanilla escence and it was acceptable.
Hi Petit! I recently made this recipe for upcoming dessert recipe, and it still works. I would like to help you why it doesn’t work in your case. I’ll be happy to trouble shoot with you if you could explain more details with me.
Hello Ms. Nami,
I am Nia from Indonesia. First of all thank you for your kindness to share this recipe. Truthfully , I have been keen on searching original Japanese recipe for dorayaki, especially one written directly by native Japanese who used to bake Japanese dorayaki. I found several other recipes on the internet, but I doubt it would offer Japanese originality.. So I feel very grateful to find this recipe, and I would like to specially express my gratitude to you. Right now I am in the middle of my first time making dorayaki, using this recipe of course :). I hope it will go well and will convey Japanese refined taste as well.
Hi Nia! Thank you for your kind words. Hope your dorayaki came out well. 🙂
Didn’t know this was so simple to make! Bookmarking for the future. Thanks!!
Hi Annie! It’s pretty simple, especially if you get hang of making dorayaki. The key is to know your frying pan and stove’s heat, so it won’t be burnt easily and give nice golden surface. 🙂
hi ,can use self raising flour and omit the baking powder ?
Hi Sally! Since I don’t know the ratio of baking powder in self rising flour, it’s hard to say you it can be substituted… I’ve never used self rising flour. Let me know how it goes. According to the online, it says “To make your own, combine 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.”… not sure if this recipe is similar ratio of baking powder in the self rising flour.
Hi Nami, today I made your dorayaki and it is SO GOOD!!! The pancake is very soft and sweet, quite different from western style. I filled it with homemade red bean paste and they were phenomenal. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi S! I’m happy to hear you tried this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Ow I love Dorayaki!!
I made them yesterday following your recipe, with homemade anko and they were delicious!! I used unrefined brown sugar… colour and texture were perfect, taste also really good.
Thank you again, Nami-san
Mai
Hi Mai! I’m so glad you enjoyed this dish with homemade anko! It’s the best, and brown sugar adds nice flavor to it too. Thanks for your kind feedback! 🙂
I’m a vegetarian ,
I can use eng-replacement powder instead of eggs in this recipe
Hi H! I’m sorry I’m not very familiar with eggless recipe. 🙁 I have never made Dorayaki without the eggs… I googled and found eggless dorayaki recipe but I’m not sure if they taste like dorayaki and has similar texture etc…
Hi Nami,
Thank you so much for your dorayaki recipe (and many others you have posted as well)! I am wondering if it is also possible to use the batter recipe for obanyaki?
Hi Mia! I have been wanting to make Imagawayaki (Oobanyaki) too. I think it’ll be similar but I wouldn’t add honey for the batter (which is important for dorayaki). I will try to work on it in the near future. 🙂
Hi Nami. I have a small metal ring with a handle that I found at a Japanese store which can be used to cook a round egg in a pan. It holds the egg in it to keep it a perfect circle. Would this work for dorayaki batter? My stove is not very level. 🙁
Hi Lion! Oh cool! I know what you’re talking about. I actually tried with a round cookie cutter (I have a set of different sizes). It works as long as you make one at a time. The reason is that you have to keep that circle ring until the batter is firm. I tried to remove it and the wet batter is touched the ring and makes the metal messy for next pancake… And mine doesn’t have a handle, so it gets hot. xD Let me know if you try! You have a better gadget than my cookie cutter. 😉
I just finished watching “Sweet Beans” and now I want the make Dorayaki. Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome! That is a great movie, and hope you enjoyed the movie, and good luck making Dorayaki. 🙂
I made some of those two weeks ago… It was my first time making dorayaki and koshian (which ended in tsubuan haha), my kitchen ended in a terrible mess with sweet beans on the floor and burnt pancakes but the survivors dorayaki were so good that I made them again this week.
I was always curious of this sweet taste that made those pancakes so yummy and it was honey ! I’m so glad I tried it
Thanks for the recipe as well~ Your dorayakis look so perfect and nicely shaped
Hi Jin-chan! I’m so happy to hear you tried this recipe and liked them! Well, practice helps. 😉 To make a nice round, you have to pour from high to let the batter go down straight, so it creates nice round shape, and the nice smooth surface is from wiping the oil and non-stick frying pan. 🙂 You’ll soon get the perfect dorayaki. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback!
But what to do if we are vegetarians? What can we use instead of those eggs?
Hi Lavanya! I found a site for food allergy and this recipe doesn’t use eggs or regular flour (use rice flour). Maybe you can use a google chrome to translate the site to English?
http://www.food-allergy.jp/recipe/oyatsu_20100901.html
These are delicious! Failed at frying the first few pancakes, mut then got a hand of it. Added some matcha powder in the batter and filled with cream cheese-creme fraiche-custard powder mixture
Hi Krista! It might take a few pancakes for the pan to get nice grease. Ohhh matcha version with your filling sounds ahhhhmazing! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂