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1
Place the azuki beans in a saucepan and cover generously with cold water. Bring to a full boil over high heat. Drain and discard this first water entirely — this initial discard boil removes the bitterness and astringency that would otherwise persist through every subsequent stage. Cover the beans again with fresh cold water.
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2
Return the pot to a low heat. Simmer the beans slowly, uncovered, adding water as needed to keep the beans submerged, until each bean is completely tender but the skins remain largely intact — tanba dainagon azuki are prized precisely because their thin skins resist bursting. The beans should yield without resistance when pressed between two fingers, with skins still visibly whole. This is tsubu-an: bean identity preserved.
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3
Drain the cooked beans, reserving a little cooking liquid. Return beans to the pan over low heat. Add the 240 g sugar in stages, stirring steadily. Add the pinch of salt. Continue to cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and pulls away from the sides of the pan. The anko should hold its shape when a spoonful is placed on a cold plate — dense, clean sweetness with no pooling liquid. This is the critical juncture: the sugar ratio, the slow cook, and the bean variety decide everything that follows. Under-sweet anko compromises both flavour and stability; over-cooked anko loses the intact bean texture that defines tsubu-an. The dish lives or dies here.
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4
Set the finished tsubu-an aside to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the dorayaki batter: whisk together the eggs, 60 g sugar, and honey until pale and slightly thickened. Sift in the flour and fold until a smooth, cohesive batter forms. Rest the batter for 15 minutes — the flour fully hydrates and the batter becomes more cohesive. The rested batter should fall from a spoon in a slow, continuous ribbon.
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5
Heat a flat griddle or heavy pan over medium-low heat. The surface must not be so hot that the batter browns before it sets through — this is the dorayaki's other critical discipline. Drop ladlefuls of batter to form round discs approximately 8–9 cm in diameter. Cook until bubbles break across the entire surface and the edges are set, then flip once. The finished disc should be golden amber — the honey providing its characteristic colour — and spring back lightly when pressed at the centre. Cook all discs and allow to cool slightly.
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6
Pair the dorayaki discs and sandwich a generous quantity of tsubu-an between them. Dorayaki quality is assessed by filling ratio: more anko is better. Press gently so the filling reaches the perimeter without spilling. The assembled dorayaki is best eaten while the cake layer is still warm and soft.
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7
For taiyaki: combine the taiyaki batter ingredients — flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder — into a smooth, pourable batter, thinner than the dorayaki batter to produce a crisper, thinner shell. Heat cast-iron fish-shaped taiyaki moulds over direct flame. Pour batter into each half-mould, then place a generous portion of tsubu-an at the centre — pack the mould fully, filling from the body to the very tip of the tail. A tail left empty is the mark of mass production. Close the mould and cook, turning once, until the shell is golden and crisp and releases cleanly from the iron. Taiyaki must be eaten within minutes: the contrast between crisp shell and warm anko centre is the dish's essential character, lost entirely once cold.