I like baking, and I think homemade sweets are the best (if I can say that myself :)).
But since there are only two people in our household, I hesitate to make a large amount unless I can freeze it.
Taiyaki is a good choice when you just want a little something for a snack.
It looks fancy, but it’s actually pretty easy to make (as long as you have filling ready) with this trusted Taiyaki pan which I brought from the U.S.
Traditionally, Taiyaki is filled with sweet “Azuki” bean paste, but since I had beautiful black beans from Happy Grocers, I used them, and it worked perfectly.
I was planning to have custard cream as well, so instead of making bean “paste”, I sweetened the beans but kept the shape of the beans to give a nice texture to the custard cream.
When we were at one of our favorite beverage places, Yuzu House, the other day, we saw this being sold on the counter.
I love yuzu, and this dried yuzu peel was full of flavor, slightly sweetened, and absolutely delicious.
(I will definitely buy more next time we go there.)
So I decided to add this to my Taiyaki to give a little twist.
There are so many different recipes for Taiyaki batter, but I like this recipe (Japanese) because it creates the crispy (vs. soft) texture; the recipe does not call for eggs, and that is probably one of the reasons for this particular texture.
The recipe calls for cake flour.
In my pantry I only keep all-purpose flour and bread flour, so I “made” cake flour by adding a little corn starch to my all-purpose flour.
Also, I used honey in place of mirin, which I don’t keep in my pantry either.
The ingredients are important, but pouring the batter “thin” is equally important to create the crispiness.
For the vegan custard cream I used my go-to recipe.
(I used oat milk and soy milk both (I didn’t have enough soy milk) this time, which is why the color is a little darker. It still tasted great though.)
I hope you can tell how crispy it is from this photo.
The extra edges are the best part!
And the filling was SO GOOD!
I LOVED the combination of creamy custard cream, sweet black beans, and slightly bitter but refreshing yuzu peels.
Hapy New Year!
Wishing everyone a healthy, joyful, and peaceful year. 🙏