Dorayaki

Very popular in Japan – who celebrates it on April 4th – the dorayaki is made of two soft pancakes traditionally filled with an azuki bean paste called “anko”. The beans are soaked to reduce cooking time with low heat at first, then adding sugar or honey for candying and finish cooking until a paste with thick consistency is obtained… Delicate to master, it takes times to prepare a dorayaki as it is meant to!

The legend says this pastry dates back to the 11th century. Wounded in a battle, the warrior monk Benkei found refuge in a cottage. To thank the farmer who cared for him after a battle, the warrior-monk prepared a cake by cooking the paste directly on his gong. The dorayaki (from “dora” which signifies “gong” and “yaki” meaning “fried”) was born! It was in 1914 that a Pastry Chef from Tokyo designed its present form.

Famous beyond the frontiers thanks to manga and cinema – the Japanese pastry is the star of 2015 movie Sweet Bean –, the dorayaki exists in different versions. We restyle it by swapping the anko for sesame paste, whipped cream, cinnamon cream, matcha green tea… Drawings and messages can also be added on the top of the pancake.

Very trendy, the dorayaki inspires Chefs, who have their own delicious interpretations. Chef Romain Gaia from the French-Japanese pastry shop Tomo (Paris) imagined a variation where the dorayaki is filled with cherries poached using Olivier Roellinger’s spices and a Sakura leaf. A subtle blend of flavours for this creation with French and Japanese accents. At Mikado Café in Dubai, Chefs Angelica Brioschi and Yoshio Nishiyama offer the dorayaki with other Japanese specialties. A week-end dedicated to the dorayaki was even organised in June at the Nan Nuo Shan house of tea, in Berlin (Germany) headed by pastry Chef Fumi… To find out everything about its preparation!