Japanese hotcake

I'm on a quest to search for the perfect hotcake recipe. Inspired by all the dorayaki, I've discovered the hotcake. I used to think pancakes were all the same and hotcakes were just glorified pancakes. How wrong I was! The pancakes that my mom used to make are essentially crepes, and I've found a perfect recipe for that, Jaime Oliver's 1-cup pancake recipe. Hotcakes however, are different. They're like little cakes which are hot and inside is very cake-like. Since I got dorayaki from Cooking with Dog, I decided to try out her hotcake recipe. Here's my version, where the method is highly adapted based on my dorayaki experiences.

Ingredients (makes 4 smallish hotcakes from 3/4 scoop batter)

1 egg

3 tbsp sugar

70 ml milk

2 tbsp veg oil

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

100 g cake flour (I substituted with 2/3 cup regular flour, removed 1.5 tbsp flour and replaced with 1.5 tbsp corn flour)

1 tsp baking power

pinch of salt

Method

1) Using a whisk, whisk the egg, vanilla essence and sugar till the sugar is combined. I whisked the mixture till it became slightly pale, but not that much.

2) Add the salt and the milk and incorporate well.

3) Sift the 2 flours together with the baking soda.

4) Sift in the flour and use the ballon whisk to slowly and carefully incorporate so that there aren't lumps, but don't beat or over-stir it, or that breaks the bubbles.

5) Let the batter rest for 15 to 30 minutes.

6) Pour a bit of oil onto a non-stick frying pan. Using a kitchen towel, coat the cooking surface but wipe off the oil so that there's a thin layer. *

7) Using a scoop, I scooped 3/4 scoop of the batter and poured it from a height get the round pancake shape. #

8) When the top is still moist but you see a few bubbles appear, quickly flip. Flipping while the top is still liquid ensures the first side isn't burnt and still allows the hotcake to be fluffy. Resist the temptation to press down the hotcake (a mistake I made till I watched some other video!) and press out all the fluffy air!

9) Serve immediately with your favourite toppings.

Cook's notes:

*At this point, CWD actually places the hot pan on a wet towel and you hear a sizzling sound, which she says will ensure that the hotcakes come out evenly browned. I did it because my first 2 dorayaki pancakes always burn till the pan adjusts, but I still burnt my 1st hotcake, so I guess this method didn't solve that problem.

#CWD just pours the batter on then uses the back of the scoop to spread it out into a circle. I guess the hotcake would be more evenly flat using her method but it didn't really bother me. At this point, she covered the pan, which I don't. On retrospect, that might have helped cook the thick hotcake through without burning it, as I had 1 slightly undercooked hotcake.

Recipe feedback

This was the perfect recipe. It was really cake-like and fluffy and my dorayaki experiences really helped. It was also not to sweet, which I was a bit worried about since CWG's dorayaki was way sweeter than JOC's.