I finally attempted those Internet-hot Japanese souffle pancakes, inspired by my friend Nate's great Instagram picture of his matcha souffle pancakes. Nate was kind enough to send me his recipe and lessons learned, and off I went to the kitchen to try these beauties.
As you can tell from the above picture, my final result wasn't quite beautiful. Or presentable. BUT they were tasty, I am proud to report. Eggy, fluffy inside, and lightly sweetened.
My critical mistake seems to be temperature – my pan was too hot to properly steam the pancakes before they burned. I cooked the pancakes on low-medium heat, but even lower heat would have been better. I also think a heavier bottom pot would help more evenly distribute the heat v. my thin enameled steel pot.
Otherwise, the pancakes were relatively easy to prepare despite the hype around them. Basically combine the wet ingredients, add the dry, and finish the batter by folding in whipped egg whites.
(at this point I realized I forgot to add the heavy cream to the wet batter – oops! Added now with the remaining egg whites)
I spooned the batter into pre-made parchment molds to prevent the batter from spreading. I followed Nate's approach of spooning one-third of the batter in the mold, letting that batter steam, then adding another third to steam, and then the final third before flipping.
The pancakes cooked way too fast because of the pan heat issue. It was just a few minutes on each side before their edges completely browned. But thankfully they were fully cooked in the middle by the time I removed them from the pan.
While this attempt was far from ideal, it was a pretty fast recipe so I will probably make them again this summer. They were different enough of a treat in our house to keep at them!
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