Let's make batter for Dorayaki. Crack the room temperature eggs into a bowl and lightly beat with a whisk. Add sieved Johakuto white sugar and honey to the beaten egg. Pre-warm the honey if it is too thick to mix in.
Beat the egg mixture for about 3 minutes. The color will turn light yellow and the texture will slightly get thicker. Dissolve baking soda in water. Add it to the egg mixture and mix.
Put the cake flour through a sieve. Mix in the egg mixture with the whisk. Get rid of any lumps of flour but be careful not to over-mix.
Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and rest the batter for 30 minutes.
Let's adjust the thickness of the batter. Using the whisk, let the batter flow into the bowl to check its thickness. Add 1 teaspoon water (not tablespoon), mix, and see if the batter is in ideal thickness. Repeat this process until the batter flows like shown in the video.
Heat an electric griddle at about 340°F (170°C) and lightly oil the surface. To brown dorayaki evenly, thoroughly wipe off any excess oil with clean paper towel. Drop the batter onto the griddle in 9cm (3 1/2") diameter circles. Let the batter spread into circles naturally and you will get perfectly round dorayaki.
When small bubbles pop up on the surface of the batter, flip them over.
Bake about 20 seconds on the other sides and place the pancakes on a cooling rack.
Cover with a damp kitchen towel to keep the pancakes moist.
Let's make whipped cream anko (red bean paste). Put a bowl of whipping cream in ice water and add sugar. Whip the cream with an electric hand mixer for 2 to 3 minutes until stiff peaks form. Remove the bowl from ice water.
Add the packaged red bean paste to the whipped cream and gently mix in with a rubber spatula.
Let's make regular Dorayaki. Take the pancakes and hold, lightly browned side facing up. Spread spoonfuls of anko on the middle of the pancake. Place another pancake on top and press around the edges to shape. Serve it on a plate.
Here is Whipped Cream Dorayaki, Nama-Dorayaki. Put Whipped Cream Anko between two pancakes and shape with your hands.
Serve the dorayaki on the plate.
Recipe Notes
When baking pancakes, set the griddle at about 170°C (340 °F). Higher temperature would cause pancakes to burn easily and lower temperature would make them hard and dry.
Both kinds of Dorayaki can be stored in a freezer and they can be thawed at room temperature. When frozen, each Dorayaki wrapped with a plastic wrap should be put in a zipper storage bag.
We highly recommend Whipped Cream Dorayaki. Red bean paste also goes great with butter and chestnuts.