If you follow food trends as much as I do, you’ve probably come across at least one video of a jiggly, thick, Japanese pancake. The fluffy Japanese pancakes are so pretty so I’ve been wanting to try to make my own or just order them whenever I found them on the menu. To order Japanese pancakes in Pittsburgh, Scratch F & B featured the thick pancakes before COVID19. (Now they have a few menu items but mostly they are selling grocery items during the crisis.)

With limited access to fluffy pancakes and plenty of free time on our hands during self-isolation, what better time to try to recreate this recipe.
There are very important items you need to make this recipe.
Hot tip 1: Use a hand mixer to beat your eggs. It will make your life so much easier. I tried whipping the eggs by hand, and after 20 minutes, I barely saw any results and barely made any stiff peaks.
Hot tip 2: Buying the molds specified on the FoodNetwork’s recipe, would be ideal. With the Amazon delivery delays for nonessential items, you’ll probably need to craft your own molds.
Hot tip 3: Before you mix the melted butter with the egg yolk, COOL THE BUTTER. The yolk will start to cook if you skip that step – trust me, I made that mistake.
How to make the foil rings:
In this video, you can watch how to make molds with foil rings. For the Japanese pancakes, you’ll want the ring to be 3-inch-wide-by-2 1/2-inch-high.
What You’ll Need for the Pancakes
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used bread flour)
- 3 tbls confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 4 tbls unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg yolk plus 3 large egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Loads of maple syrup! (For serving)
- 3-inch-wide-by-2 1/2-inch-high ring molds (the more you make, the less time you’ll need to wait for more pancakes to cook!)

Fluffy Pancake Instructions
- Whisk the flour, confectioners’ sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
- Whisk the milk, melted butter, vanilla and egg yolk in a medium bowl until combined.
- Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in another large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes. (Absolutely use an electric mixer. Don’t be crazy and try to whisk by hand, it takes a long time.)
- Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir till combined. Stir one-third of the beaten egg whites into the flour-milk mixture. Then gently fold in the remaining egg whites until just combined (careful not to overmix!)
- Coat a large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat. Place the ring molds in the middle of the skillet and fill each with 1/2 cup of batter (it should fill each ring mold about halfway).
- Cover the skillet with the lid and cook until the batter rises to the tops of the ring molds and is golden on the bottom, about 5 minutes. The next step takes a lot of grace, use a spatula to flip the pancake while using tongs on the ring mold to flip the pancake to the other side. (Some people may be able to do this as a one person job, but I needed my boyfriend to help stabilize the ring molds to flip these cakes.) Cover again and cook until golden on the other side for another five minutes.
- If you have more batter, continue flipping cakes until you’re out.
- Transfer to a plate and remove the mold. Serve with butter and maple syrup. Enjoy before the pancakes deflate!
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