These moist and delicious red bean pancakes are great for breakfast or as a snack! If you love red beans like I do, then you’ll enjoy this new red bean treat!
If you love Japanese red bean sweets such as Daifuku, Taiyaki, Anpan, and Dorayaki, you will love this Red Bean Pancakes! These pancakes may look like ordinary pancakes, but they are moist, light and fluffy, with just a hint of sweet red bean paste. If you can’t’ get enough of delicious red bean paste in your sweets, why not also have it for breakfast!
Red Bean Pancakes for Breakfast
Full confession, these red bean pancakes are not “common” pancakes in Japan. I’m sure people may make these pancakes at their home, but my mom never made them. I don’t quite remember how I ended up making these pancakes in the first place. Most likely I had leftover red bean paste in the refrigerator and decided to add it to the pancake batter one morning.
What not to like, right? I love pancakes for breakfast and we make different variations at home. Since I love anything that has red bean in it, this became an instant hit even among my family members.
Since then whenever I have some leftover red bean paste in the container (you just need one cup), I whip up these red bean pancakes for breakfast (or snack).
Red Bean Pancakes – Deconstructed Dorayaki
The red bean paste gives nice moist texture to the pancake batter. It’s kind of like deconstructed dorayaki. But as red bean flavors are spread out into the batter, the “red bean” flavor is not as strong as dorayaki. It’s definitely easier to make these pancakes at home compared to dorayaki.
As red bean paste is already sweet, and even sweeter if you buy pre-made red bean paste. Dilute the red bean paste with water in the saucepan first to easily incorporate into the batter.
As far as toppings and sauces go, I like how maple syrup matches perfectly with red bean pancakes. Even though it’s already a bit sweet from the red bean, I still like to drizzle just a little bit on mine. For the looks, I also sprinkle a bit of powder sugar.
It’s a little Asian twist on basic pancakes and I hope you give it a try, especially if you have some small amount of red bean paste in your refrigerator and don’t want it to go to waste.
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- 1 cup red bean paste (anko) (10 oz or 285 g; For the homemade recipe, please click here.)
- 2 Tbsp water
- ¼ cup sugar (4 Tbsp)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk (240 ml)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour) (240 g)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
- 2-3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- confectioners’ sugar/powder sugar
- maple syrup
- Fruits of your choice
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Add the red bean paste and water in a small saucepan and simmer until the paste is loosen up. Turn off the heat and let cool.
- In a large bowl, whisk sugar and eggs together well.
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Add the milk, vanilla, and red bean mixture in the bowl.
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Add the flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt in a fine-mesh sieve and sift over the mixing bowl. Mix well to combine but do not overmix, which will develop gluten and cause tough pancake texture.
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In a non-stick frying pan, heat some butter on medium heat. Pour the mixture on the pan and cook until you see bubbles on the pancake. Then flip over and cook until both sides are nicely golden brown.
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Serve immediately. You can sprinkle powder sugar, maple syrup, etc. I usually eat with just maple syrup as pancakes are already sweet. To save for later, wrap 2 pancakes in a single layer with aluminum foil and put it in a freezer bag. Store in the freezer for up to a month. Use the oven toaster or oven to reheat before you serve.
Red bean paste (anko): For homemade recipe, please click here.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on March 16, 2011. The images, the content, and the recipe have been updated in June 2017.
I don’t doubt for a second that Japan will bounce back from this catastrophe. Still the loss and suffering right now is heartbreaking, and my thoughts are with all the families who’ve lost loved ones.
Never thought to put red bean in pancakes, looks great!
Thank you fooddreamer! I always think of a way to eat red beans…hehe. Thanks for visiting!
I’ve been meaning to make Azuki Bean Pancakes for the longest time and now you’ve inspired me! 🙂 Time to break open that bag of beans from my pantry 🙂
Thank you for this post.
Thank you Nam! I hope you enjoy a yummy Azuki dish!
This looks so delicious but I’ve never seen sweetened red beans. Interesting!
Hi Dawn, thanks for your comments. Sweetened red beans is very popular ingredient for Japanese sweets. We put that in mochi or manju (if you have heard of those things).
Desserts with red bean are a favourite of mine – these pancakes look tasty and easy to make. Thanks!
Thanks for visiting my site! Yeah, the Japanese definitely love to put red beans in all sorts of sweets… 🙂
I LOVE sweets with red beans and these look just wonderful! My favorite is red bean mochi! Yum. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any sweetened red beans here in Israel.
Ah red bean mochi. Me too. I love both red bean and mochi. They are like irresistible sweets to me. Too bad you can’t find certain things in Israel. I’m lucky to live in San Francisco where I can pretty much buy all the ingredients for Japanese cooking. Btw, thanks for the FB add too!
Nami, You have got a lovely blog and Its good to be here…!! Reminds me of my days in Japan…. – A place where I loved to be….!!!
Thanks Emreen for the kind word! I’m really happy to hear that you liked living in Japan. 🙂
First off I want to thank you so much for all the recipes I have found on your site. I just finished making my first red bean paste (I don’t think I cooked it long enough will go longer next time still tastes good) and I plan on using it to do this recipe. Was wondering though do you think this would work well as a waffle? I like to make up a batch of waffles and then freeze so I can have a quick breakfast.
Thanks.
Hi Caprice! I’m glad you enjoy my recipes – thank you! Actually in Japan, we consider making red bean paste right is considered pretty difficult. You need to know how long to cook to your liking, and to get the right texture for certain recipe is not easy as the red bean paste harden while it cools. So you have to stop cooking just enough to keep some moisture… not to mention, the beans had to be cooked right (soft enough). So this recipe needs some practice for sure (and it’s more difficult as we don’t cook it everyday…). Waffle works too, as long as you don’t put too much paste (and paste should be little loose not solid). I do freeze both waffles and pancakes so we can eat on weekday morning. Kids think it’s a very nice treat to eat the waffles and pancakes on school days (as I don’t have time to cook on weekdays!). 🙂
Could I add 1 cup of red bean paste to my own pancake recipe with the same result? I am excited to try adding red bean to more of my cooking, thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Estella! Sure! Just adjust the sweetness level based on your red bean paste sweetness. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
The first time I went to try this recipe, I didn’t have enough red bean paste, so I substituted half with chunky peanut butter. I highly recommend this!!
Just today I decided to repeat the peanut butter red bean pancakes, but again was missing an ingredient, this time maple syrup. My substitute, 2 Tbs honey, 2 Tbs molasses. Awesome!!!!!
Hi Corrine! Ohh thanks so much for your recommendation on chunky peanut butter! 😀 And thanks again for introducing the additional flavor. This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Hi – I usually shop at H-Mart & buy dorayaki – now that you have a recipe, I’ll just make my own. Domo Arigato! Theresa
Hi Theresa! Homemade is always the best! I like that I can control how sweet it is (store-bought tends to be sweeter). Hope you enjoy! 🙂
What a great idea! Looks lovely, I too love red bean paste.
Thanks Emy! Hope you’d give it a try! 🙂
Can never resist pancakes! Although I usually eat them for lunch or dinner rather than breakfast (just not that hungry first thing in the morning). Really nice — thanks.
My kids love pancakes, but never tried red bean pancakes yet. I have homemade anko always ready, so I sure will give it a try.
Thanks!
Hi Hayan! I hope they will enjoy a new flavor of pancakes! 🙂 Thank you for your comments!
Hi,
Made this for breakfast this morning. It is delicious! Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback!
hi Nami,
I made konbu maki. It was too salty. I think it was the konbu that was salty or maybe the dashi…
how do i make it less salty?
Hi Jan! Do you mean this recipe (https://www.justonecookbook.com/salmon-kombu-roll/)? Do you remember the type of kombu you used? What type of dashi did you use (dashi powder has MSG and salt, but otherwise dashi is NOT salty). You did step 4 (de-salting salmon) right? I am curious to find out too.
So do we mix the red bean paste in with the pancake batter and cook it together? Sorry I didn’t see that in the directions. I like to follow directions exactly as in the recipe to get the right taste and texture. If I don’t follow the recipe, it almost always ends up in failure.
Hi Juls! Yes, you add the red bean mixture to the batter at step 2: Add the milk, vanilla, and red bean mixture.