A classic street vendor snack in Japan, Taiyaki is a warm, fish-shaped cake with sweet red bean filling. This waffle-like Japanese treat is very popular at street fairs and festivals. In this recipe, I’ll show you how you can make fresh, hot Taiyaki at home.
What I miss most about Japanese summertime is the astonishing array of Japanese street foods offered by vendors at hundreds of festivals (matsuri) that take place across the country this time of year. There is endless of good eats to indulge in, but one of the must-try is the fish-shaped waffle-like snack called Taiyaki (鯛焼き).
Typically filled with sweet red bean paste, taiyaki are the stuff of childhood dreams! Just the thought of taiyaki would bring an intense craving and smile to my face!
Table of Contents
What is Taiyaki?
Easily recognizable by its whimsical fish-shaped, taiyaki (鯛焼き) is a waffle-style cake/snack filled with sweet red bean paste (anko), and sometimes with other fillings such as custard, chocolate, Nutella, or cheese.
It is a quintessential food at Japanese street fairs and festivals and is made in a fish-shaped iron mold resembling tai (red sea bream). In Japan, you can also find taiyaki shops that specialize in making pastries.
Most recently, trendy shops across the world have reimagined this traditional treat. In Tokyo, there is croissant taiyaki, where they combine croissant dough with tasty fillings.
In the US, you can find Taiyaki NY, a specialty shop with a few locations in New York and a few other places that serve taiyaki as handheld ice cream cones and topped with soft-serve ice cream. You can customize your ice cream flavor—from matcha and black sesame swirl to chocolate—and finish with red bean filling, a wafer stick, and mini mochi. Each taiyaki cone is crafted to fill your Instagram feeds.
History of Taiyaki: Why is Taiyaki Shaped Like a Fish?
Tai means “sea bream” and yaki means “grilled/baked”. You can trace its origin back to the Edo Period over 300 years ago. Before taiyaki took its shape, taiyaki was first imagawayaki, a warm round-shaped cake that is filled with sweet red bean paste.
During the Meiji-era (1868 – 1912), tai (sea bream) was considered a highly prized fish and only eaten for special celebrations. The fish became the symbol of good luck in Japan’s way of life and culture. Some enterprising pastry makers decided to modify imagawayaki by refashioning the round-shaped cake into a brand new sea bream fish look. With that, taiyaki was born and it became a huge hit.
Childhood Memories of Taiyaki
When taiyaki is freshly made, the crispy exterior surrounding the warm soft cake with anko filling is delectable. I would toss it between my hands to avoid getting burnt and slowly bite into the steaming hot cake. I usually start eating from the head side and the tail last (how about you?).
When I was young, I sometimes had to share a taiyaki with my younger brother and I always fought for the head side because taiyaki shops do not always fill the red bean paste all the way to the tail. I was always really disappointed when they don’t!
How to Make Taiyaki
The Ingredients You’ll Need
As you could see, we only need simple pantry ingredients to make this classic taiyaki recipe:
- Cake flour
- Baking powder & baking soda
- Egg
- Whole milk
- Sugar
- Filling: Red bean paste (anko) or others such as Nutella, chocolate, custard, etc)
- Neutral oil
When I don’t have time to make my homemade red bean paste, I buy and use a can of Ogura-An. The texture of the red bean paste is very smooth and easy to use.
The Cooking Steps
- Make the batter.
- Heat the taiyaki pan and pour the batter.
- Add the filling of your choice and cook!
Other Cooking Notes
Each taiyaki store and family has its own recipe and style for taiyaki, and my recipe leans toward cakey, fluffy pancake texture as my kids prefer it that way. I like mine to be on the crispy side like waffles. If you also like crispy texture, omit the egg and adjust the liquid amount for the batter.
Making taiyaki is very similar to a waffle making. The only extra touch is the filling. What kind of filling should we prepare? Let’s talk about that next.
Taiyaki Filling
Without a doubt, sweet red bean paste (Anko) is the most classic and popular choice of filling, but you can also find other sweet and savory options:
- Custard cream (recipe)
- Chocolate
- Nutella
- Cheese
- Sweet potato paste, and more!
Special Tool: Taiyaki Pan
Taiyaki is not taiyaki without its iconic shape! Since I know I’d make it every summer as a tradition for my children (and myself), I decided to get the fish-shaped taiyaki pan from Amazon.
More Japanese Street Snacks You’ll Love
- Imagawayaki (Obanyaki)
- Manju
- Dorayaki (Japanese Red Bean Pancake)
- Baked Japanese Sweet Potatoes (Yaki Imo)
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Taiyaki (Japanese Fish Shaped Waffle)
Video
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups cake flour (or make homemade cake flour; weigh your flour or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell)
- ¾ cup whole milk (¾ cup + 4 tsp; adjust the amount of milk depending on the egg size)
- 8 Tbsp sweet red bean paste (anko) (or make my homemade Anko recipe; you can also use Nutella, custard, or your favorite filling)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil (for greasing the grill)
Instructions
Before You Start…
- Please note that the batter requires a resting time of 1 hour. 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. You will also need a taiyaki maker. Please note that each brand of taiyaki maker comes with a different-sized mold. If you are making taiyaki for the first time, consider this a trial run for measuring the portion of ingredients you‘ll need for your particular taiyaki mold.
To Make the Batter
- Sift 1¼ cups cake flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp baking soda into a large bowl.
- Add 3 Tbsp sugar and whisk well to combine.
- In a medium bowl, whisk 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) and then add ¾ cup whole milk (¾ cup + 4 tsp). Combine well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk well. Keep the batter in the refrigerator for at least one hour to rest and let the flour absorb the liquid. Tip: Whisking the batter creates gluten; by letting it rest, the batter will relax and become smooth.
- Pour the batter into a measuring cup or jug. You should have about 1¼ cups.
To Cook the Taiyaki
- Preheat the taiyaki maker over medium-low heat. When it‘s hot, grease the pan with some of the 1 Tbsp neutral oil using a brush.
- Fill the taiyaki pan mold about 60% full of batter.
- In the center of each mold, put about 1 Tbsp of the 8 Tbsp sweet red bean paste (anko) and pour more batter on top to cover it.
- Optional: You can also use Nutella as a filling.
- Close the lid and immediately flip.
- Cook for 2 to 2½ minutes on that side. Then flip and cook for another 2 to 2½ minutes. Open and check to see if the taiyaki is golden brown. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Continue cooking the remaining taiyaki.
To Serve
- Serve warm. If the taiyaki get cold, you can toast them in the toaster oven or oven until they‘re crispy on the outside.
To Store
- You can keep the taiyaki in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to a month. To reheat, toast them in the toaster oven or oven until they‘re crispy on the outside.
Hi. I am a follower of your interesting instructional video on various recipe.
I wish to do the taiyaki, manju as a business. However, the problem is the difficulty in sourcing the machines from Japan/korea. I know there are many from China but the fish shape and size are smaller than japan/korea. Moreover the material of the machine is also different. I have seen some are made of ceramic and aluminum like.
I wonder whether I can seek your help by providing me the suppliers from japan/korea.
Hopefully you can help me.
Thanks
Gary
Hi Gary! I’m just a home cook and a food blogger and I only use a kitchen tool that’s just for home use… so I don’t have any contact for suppliers, etc. I’m sorry…
Will the Taiyaki Maker work in induction heat stove. if a magnet sticks on it it will work, do you know what brand will work? thank you
Hi Nancy! I’m not familiar with IH stove… I wish I can answer your question…
I’ve been thinking Taiyaki as a traditional Korean snack until yesterday I found out Bungopang(Korean Taiyaki) is actually a copycat of the original Taiyaki😂 By the way, thank you for the recipe! I was going to use pancake batter if I cannot find a good Taiyaki recipe…I’m going to make them with some glutinous rice flour+ all purpose flour mixture to get the slightly chewy texture!
Hi Suahh! Haha, well Japanese Kimchi Nabe (hot pot) is definitely a less spicy version of Korean Kimchi Jjigae (since we can’t really eat spicy food). We definitely love each other’s food. =)
Hope the Taiyaki comes out well! Enjoy!
Just got back from Japan where I finally bought a taiyaki pan on kappabashi-dori, so I lost no time using your recipe to make taiyaki for my grandson. We made custard-filled and nutella-filled, because I have not had time yet to make anko. The nutella kind of overpowered the pancake, so this morning we tried chocolate pastry cream which worked much better. Anyway, your recipe worked perfectly (left out the eggs and it was nice and crispy). Planning on making your instant pot anko this week, because that is what I really love!
Thank you for all your lovely recipes!
Hi Patricia! Aww I’m so happy to hear you got to purchase the taiyaki pan and already made it!!! Yay! I hope my IP Anko recipe worked out for you too. Now you can make taiyaki all the time at home! 🙂
Hi Nami I can’t seem to find baking soda in Australia so I used bicarb of soda instead. Google seems to suggest that they are the same? However, I found the end result my taiyaki had a ‘soapy taste to them. So the second time I tried just using 2 teaspoons of baking powder but the taiyaki turned out on the ‘doughy’ side instead of light and fluffy. What do you think? What is in baking soda?
Also can I use the imagawayaki batter to make taiyaki? Thank you!
Hi Judy! Yeah, I heard baking soda is the same as bicarb according to the internet. But I also read that the soapy taste comes from too much baking soda. I haven’t made this for a while but I don’t remember having a soapy taste (that would be alarming!). You want the baking soda to make the taiyaki fluffy… You can try the imagawayaki batter to make taiyaki, if you like, but I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you try!
Hi, can the batter be made in advance and kept overnight?
Hi Jean! I think you can do that. 🙂
Can I substitute almond milk or soymilk in place of cow’s milk?
Hi Teri! Yes, I think you can do that. 🙂
Hello, I use electric Taiyaki maker (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/MCE-3206-Taiyaki-maker-27506/dp/B001P0DS44), so I don’t turn it over.
However, I’m still struggling to get the right amount of paste (so it doesn’t get out of the mold) and filling (so that I can still cover it with paste) and cooking time (so that it’s not burnt nor sticky)…
Do you have any input regarding this matter?
Thanks for your wonderful recipes that remind me of Japan.
Hi Stephanie! Wow this taiyaki maker is over $220! Or maybe it’s a marked up price. My suggestion is to put less batter and put small amount of anko. Not sure about the depth of the fish in this machine, so it’s hard to say. But you don’t have to fill up till the edge, and when you add the filling, that will probably reach to the edge. Good luck!! 🙂
なみさん、お返事ありがとうございます。
I didn’t pay mine this price but rather about $60. The mold is rather shallow, and I’m always afraid to have the anko go through the batter if I don’t put enough batter.
Next time I’ll try to use less batter for each fish.
ありがとうございました。
じゃあね。
I see, that’s very reasonable! Hmmm. it’s hard to tell from the picture how shallow it is, but the batter should extend, try increasing the amount as you become more comfortable. So try making the taiyaki without filling or almost without filling. That batter amount should be the maximum amount you can add. If you add the filling, the batter should be much less than that. Work your way down to decrease the batter as you go up on the filling. Hope this makes sense. 頑張ってね!!!
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Can one do a gluten free flour
Hi Kaitlyn! I haven’t tried it myself…. if you end up trying it, let us know how it goes. 🙂
[…] Takoyaki – octopus or fish cooked in a bread ball. This was not my bag, but Jackson loved it.– Taiyaki – a pastry cut to look like a fish, but is filled with a sweet bean paste. Delicious.Also make […]
We just returned from Japan a week ago and I am already missing these sweet treats! They were warm and amazing. We had one with sweet potato and one with sweet red bean. Oh man, I would love to learn to make them.
Hi Laura! Taiyaki is delicious especially winter time. 🙂 If your area has a Japanee grocery store, sometimes they have frozen taiyaki in freezer section too. It’s worth checking it out. Otherwise, you have to make it from scratch….
Yes and I plan to try! I love cooking and lately all things Japanese.
Yay! I’m excited that you are cooking Japanese food! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe. My family loves it. I found another great filling- jellied cranberry sauce. It is so tasty! A little bit source and juicy – makes a nice filling and does not run.
Hi Oksana! Ohhh that sounds like a great filling! Thank you for sharing it with us! 🙂
[…] Adapted from Just One Cookbook […]
Thanks for the recipe. Can I reduce the sugar to 1 tbsp bc the red bean fillings already sweet enough for me.
Hi Ling! Sure, that should work. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!