a problem and a solution
Certain people caused me to want to eat cake at 10:30 in the evening tonight. This was rather difficult, because I don't have cake, and cake takes a long time to make, and also cake without gluten is more than a little tricky. But I figured it out!! Because I'm smart and clever and awesome. I made a "cake" that is gluten free and quick and delicious!
My intention when I wandered down to the kitchen was to make something like mochi daifuku, soft steamed ricecakes with red bean jam inside. But I couldn't immediately find my recipe for mochi, so I grabbed an "Easy Japanese Cookbook" and browsed its dessert section (most of the recipes looked rather complicated and not very cake-like) and then! I found the recipe for dorayaki!! Mini-pancakes with red bean filling! Perfect, and even easier than mochi!!
I made an attempt to look up "gluten free dorayaki" online to get an idea of what kind of flours people use, but I only saw a recipe with almond flour and one with a combination of like 5 flours. So I ended up using the recipe in my cookbook, subbing glutinous rice flour for all-purpose flour. I don't know what the original tastes like, but the rice-flour version was awesome, so you might try it even if you can eat gluten.
Recipe (off the top of my head):
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 egg
2/3 cup (glutinous/sticky/sweet rice) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
filling: red bean paste
Whisk together the sugar-honey-egg until sugar is dissolved. Slowly add in the flour and mix. Dissolve the baking powder in 5 Tbsp water and slowly add that; whisk until batter is smooth.
Heat a skillet and pour in a little oil; let it coat bottom of the pan evenly (book said to spread it around the pan with paper towel). Ladle 3 Tbsp of batter into the skillet. Cook over medium heat 3 minutes per side or until nice and golden-brown. (my pan gets really hot, so after the first round they only needed maybe 1 minute per side).
Set pancake-things on a plate as they are finished and add a spoonful of your desired filling. Fold in half and eat! So yum!!
I only tried to cook one at a time because I didn't want the cakes to stick to each other-my batter was a little runny (possibly because I didn't measure the flour properly) so it sometimes spread a bit thin.
And so I am of the opinion that dorayaki is very awesome. Using the rice flour gives it a really great, light spongy texture (I had my brother try one, and he specifically commented that he liked the texture). I filled my cakes with red-bean paste and ube jam, but I think that normal crêpe fillings would also be really really good. Nutella♥♥♥
Here's a picture!! (I ate the ugly ones, but these four came out relatively pretty):
Also, isn't that a lovely doily? My friend made it for me! She's the sweetest :D (and I need to get going on knitting her mittenscarf. sorry, friend...)
And because I can, here is a funny picture of Finny looking like the proper gentleman that he isn't:
I took the same picture with a flash (this version is no-flash), and his eyes were crazy glowy!!
My intention when I wandered down to the kitchen was to make something like mochi daifuku, soft steamed ricecakes with red bean jam inside. But I couldn't immediately find my recipe for mochi, so I grabbed an "Easy Japanese Cookbook" and browsed its dessert section (most of the recipes looked rather complicated and not very cake-like) and then! I found the recipe for dorayaki!! Mini-pancakes with red bean filling! Perfect, and even easier than mochi!!
I made an attempt to look up "gluten free dorayaki" online to get an idea of what kind of flours people use, but I only saw a recipe with almond flour and one with a combination of like 5 flours. So I ended up using the recipe in my cookbook, subbing glutinous rice flour for all-purpose flour. I don't know what the original tastes like, but the rice-flour version was awesome, so you might try it even if you can eat gluten.
Recipe (off the top of my head):
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 egg
2/3 cup (glutinous/sticky/sweet rice) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
filling: red bean paste
Whisk together the sugar-honey-egg until sugar is dissolved. Slowly add in the flour and mix. Dissolve the baking powder in 5 Tbsp water and slowly add that; whisk until batter is smooth.
Heat a skillet and pour in a little oil; let it coat bottom of the pan evenly (book said to spread it around the pan with paper towel). Ladle 3 Tbsp of batter into the skillet. Cook over medium heat 3 minutes per side or until nice and golden-brown. (my pan gets really hot, so after the first round they only needed maybe 1 minute per side).
Set pancake-things on a plate as they are finished and add a spoonful of your desired filling. Fold in half and eat! So yum!!
I only tried to cook one at a time because I didn't want the cakes to stick to each other-my batter was a little runny (possibly because I didn't measure the flour properly) so it sometimes spread a bit thin.
And so I am of the opinion that dorayaki is very awesome. Using the rice flour gives it a really great, light spongy texture (I had my brother try one, and he specifically commented that he liked the texture). I filled my cakes with red-bean paste and ube jam, but I think that normal crêpe fillings would also be really really good. Nutella♥♥♥
Here's a picture!! (I ate the ugly ones, but these four came out relatively pretty):
Also, isn't that a lovely doily? My friend made it for me! She's the sweetest :D (and I need to get going on knitting her mittenscarf. sorry, friend...)
And because I can, here is a funny picture of Finny looking like the proper gentleman that he isn't:
I took the same picture with a flash (this version is no-flash), and his eyes were crazy glowy!!