How to Make Your Own Taiyaki

Inadvertently, this is an appropriate post for Poisson D’Avril / April Fool’s Day, but the recipe is no joke! Cartoon-fish-shaped Taiyaki may be the cutest dessert there is. Originating in Japan, Taiyaki has a waffle-like base, and is traditionally filled with red bean paste. The hand-held snack has a centuries-long history and the fish shape, tai, symbolically conveys wealth. We first experienced Taiyaki at Japanese restaurants in the US, and in frozen packets at the Mitsuwa grocery store.  Fortunately, in the past few years more restaurants in the US are taking cues from the Taiyaki’s homeland of Japan, and are making these fish waffles fresh to order (we have had them recently at Taiyaki NYC and Mini Mott). However, my sister gave us a Taiyaki iron for Christmas, so we have been able to recreate Taiyaki at home for the first time. Though the fish shape is intricate, Taiyaki are really no harder to make than waffles (albeit with a hand-held iron instead of an automatic one).

There are many Taiyaki recipes out there, and we started with one from Just One Cookbook. This recipe called for cake flour, which was easier to come by pre-pandemic. If you don’t have it, here is way to substitute All-Purpose Flour + Corn Starch. You may be able to find canned or jarred red bean / azuki paste in a local Asian supermarket. If not, you make your own red bean paste with some of your pantry reserves. Or for even more variety, you can fill these with custard or even Nutella! The only tricky part is the timing of cooking the Taiyaki, we have a gas oven, and it took us a while to find the right cook time, which may also vary for your oven. If you make extra Taiyaki, you can freeze them and then reheat in a 350 oven for a few minutes. Enjoy!

How to make your own Taiyaki (recipe adapted from Just One Cookbook).

Instructions

1. Sift the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl.

2. Whisk in sugar.

3. In a second bowl, whisk the egg, add the milk and whisk together.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk well. Let batter rest in refrigerator for one hour (there should be roughly 1.25 cups of batter).

5. When your batter is done resting, preheat your Taiyaki pan over a low heat (taking care to keep the plastic handle away from heat source).

6. When you are ready to make the Taiyaki, brush vegetable oil into the Taiyaki depressions

7. Raise heat to medium and fill the Taiyaki depression just over halfway with batter.

8. Spoon in one tablespoon of Azuki paste

9. Pour batter over the top to cover the paste, but do not overfill.

10. Close the two halves of the pan and turn to flip.

11. Cook each side 2-3 minutes, depending on the heat of your stove-top, until the Taiyaki is golden brown on each side.

12. Cool on a baking rack and serve warm!