We paid a visit to Tom Yang, co-founder of Insta-famous Japanese ice cream shop Taiyaki, in NYC’s Chinatown. The goal: to learn how to make Japanese souffle pancakes, the fluffiest and dreamiest treat the internet ever made famous — in our humble opinion.
The origins of these pancakes are a bit muddy, but they vaulted to minor internet fame back in 2016 when a couple of famous cafes in Osaka started serving them. Gram Cafe and Pancake has become an even bigger tourist destination as the fluffy pancakes have taken over social media in consecutive years.
In the beginning, unless you traveled to Japan, you were destined to be green (like the matcha sauce sometimes served on top) with envy, studying the thick stacks and video loops of jiggling pancakes on Instagram feeds.
The pancakes finally landed in NYC, courtesy of the guys at Taiyaki, and the craze got real. Two- to three-hour lines would form around the block outside their tiny counter space on weekend mornings, the only actual days they served the pancakes.
Now that we’ve had to adapt to social distancing, our FOMO has also evolved. Instead of craving the experience of the wait and ensuing reward, documenting it, and geotagging it so others know you were there bonding with a bunch of people in line, we are now faced with new challenges. Challenges such as making our own copycat fluffy souffle pancakes. The results will vary, but no matter what, making your own fantasy brunch will feel like heaven (a puffy pancake-clouded heaven).
The key to making your own pancakes impossibly light and fluffy is to incorporate elements of souffle-making into the process. To put it in simple terms, if you have ever made pancakes, you’re just adding a couple of elements and steps to the usual recipe, like folding meringue into your batter, using ring molds (if you don’t have these, it’s easy to DIY with parchment paper like in the video), and adding some steam while they cook.
When doing these at home, if you don’t own an electric griddle/plancha like the one at Taiyaki, use your regular non-stick skillet, add a little bit of water (about ½ tablespoon on each side of the ring mold) and finish cooking under cover.
When they’re done, snap a quick pic to post to Instagram, then enjoy!
