P
Japanese · Ueno, Tokyo
Dorayaki — Japanese Red Bean Pancake Wagashi (どら焼き)
Dorayaki (どら焼き) are Japanese wagashi consisting of two small, fluffy pancakes (made with honey, eggs, sugar, and flour) sandwiching a generous filling of sweet azuki red bean paste (anko). The pancakes have a distinctive honey-brown surface from the natural sugars in the batter and a distinctive moist, cake-like crumb different from European pancakes (which use baking powder but no honey). Dorayaki are among the most democratically available Japanese wagashi — sold everywhere from specialist wagashi shops to convenience stores — and are deeply embedded in Japanese popular culture, most famously as the favourite food of the robot cat Doraemon. Contemporary dorayaki also appear with matcha cream, chestnut paste, sweet potato, or Hokkaido milk custard fillings.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the batter
3
eggs
Your own market
80 g
caster sugar
Your own market
30 g
honey
Origin · New ZealandPurely Artisan Foods · San Diego →
15 ml
mirin
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
120 g
plain flour
sifted
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
½ tsp
baking soda
sifted with the flour
Your own market
For the filling
300 g
tsubuan (chunky azuki red bean paste)
thick enough to hold its shape; shop-bought or prepared
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Combine the eggs, caster sugar, honey, and mirin in a bowl. Beat together until the sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture is homogeneous and slightly pale. Sift the flour and baking soda directly into the bowl and fold until a smooth, lump-free batter forms. Cover and rest for 10–15 minutes. The batter should be thick enough to fall in a slow, continuous ribbon from the spoon.
2
Set a non-stick pan over low-medium heat. Use no oil or butter — the pan must be dry. When the pan is evenly warm, ladle a portion of batter to form a round disc approximately 8–9 cm in diameter. This step decides the dish: the heat must be low enough for the surface to develop an even, deep amber colour through the Maillard reaction of the honey and mirin sugars — no dark spots, no pale patches. Watch the surface; when bubbles appear and begin to set across the entire face, the pancake is ready to turn. Flip once and cook the second side for 20–30 seconds. Transfer to a wire rack, surface side up, and cover with a clean cloth to retain moisture. Repeat for all pancakes, producing 12 rounds of equal size.
3
Allow the pancakes to cool completely under the cloth — they should feel soft and slightly tacky to the touch, never dry or stiff. Pair each pancake with a counterpart of identical size.
4
Place a generous mound of tsubuan (approximately 50 g) at the centre of one pancake of each pair. Set the second pancake on top and press gently at the edges — firm enough to bond the two halves, not so hard as to compress the crumb or force the anko to the rim. The finished dorayaki should hold its shape cleanly; the anko should sit flush with the pancake edge without extruding. The surface should remain honey-brown, smooth, and faintly glossy.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Dorayaki from Usagiya, Ueno (est. 1912), Tokyo — the house credited with the modern two-pancake form. Their pancakes remain moist for 2–3 days; the benchmark against which all others are measured. Individual pieces wrapped in washi paper tied with string.
02
Estate — Specialist wagashi-ya using premium tsubuan made from named-origin azuki beans — whole beans that retain their shape, providing textural contrast against the pancake's uniform softness. Honey of defined floral character (e.g. acacia or domestic Japanese varietals).
03
Market — Good supermarket or department-store wagashi counter dorayaki — reliable even colour, firm anko, matched pancake pairs. Standard commercial tsubuan; pasteurised blended honey.
04
House — Home-made with shop-bought tsubuan from a Japanese grocery. Entirely respectable when the batter is properly rested and the pan is held at the correct low-medium heat; the chief variable is pancake evenness.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The raw pancake surface is fully set and bubbles have broken and stilled across the entire face before the flip — no wet, shiny centre remains.
◇Sight. The cooked surface is an even, deep honey-amber — the colour of dark caramel, uniform from edge to edge, with no pale or scorched zones.
◇Touch. Cooled pancakes feel soft, slightly springy, and faintly tacky — not dry, not brittle; the moisture from honey and mirin is held in the crumb.
◇Sight. The assembled dorayaki holds its shape without the anko extruding at the seam — the two pancake faces meet cleanly around the filling's perimeter.
◇Where it lives or dies. The pan must be dry and held at low-medium heat so that honey and mirin drive an even Maillard reaction across the entire surface — producing uniform deep amber without a single dark spot.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Nikka From The Barrel
Nikka Whisky — Miyagikyo Distillery · Miyagikyo — Nikka Distillery
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Whisky
From British Columbia
Nothing from British Columbia holds against this yet.
Without alcohol
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Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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