[Anime Culture Monday] Anime Recipes: Taiyaki from Hinako Note

8:00 AM July 24, 2017

Before we get started on another adventure around food, there is one small thing that we would like to mention to you about Taiyaki. This recipe will call for a Taiyaki Double Pan which is something that can be purchased online for about 20 USD. Now we also understand that everyone cannot randomly afford a pan unless they are planning to go and consistently make Taiyaki on a regular basis. You certainly can as like with most filled sweets in Japan, what you can experiment putting in them is great and many, we also understand that others will be reluctant to purchase something that they are not sure about. For those who still want to make this, please look at the optional notes part of the recipe instructions for a feel on how else you can make taiyaki. Note, they will not look the same as those made in a double pan, but you can still enjoy making this recipe. Do not expect the same taiyaki to come from both methods.

Welcome back one and all to our Anime recipe series! This week we will be talking about another food that is near and dear to our hearts from a show that is equally becoming near and dear to our hearts. When Hinako Note hit airwaves, it was dismissed as another Gochuusa copy. However, people are slowly coming around to love the show and we could not be more delighted! The story revolves around Hinako always wanting to be in theater but being very poor at communication. She moves to Tokyo to attend school and learn more while residing in a bookstore. She meets a gaggle of very different girls and they decide to restart the now defunct drama club at their school! The taiyaki makes its debut in the first episode of Hinako Note and comes in one of the three most popular varieties, anko (or sweet red bean paste). Let’s not talk about it anymore and dive right on in!

Taiyaki from Hinako Note

A few things to note about this dish are the following sentences. Taiyaki is loved by Japanese people of all ages. Taiyaki are rather easy to make. Taiyaki have many different variations. Finally, taiyaki can be found almost everywhere in Japan at any given point in time, but are most popular during summer festivals. As we said, taiyaki can come in many flavors and varieties. The most common three are a custard cream filling, anko filling, and the best way to beat the heat, with ice cream filling. During summer festivals, there will be stall after stall lined up selling them freshly baked and prepared. The trick to taiyaki is to get the filling in without having it go everywhere, so how does that happen? Magic. Just kidding. But magic would be a good substitute instead of having to keep your eye on it constantly.

Taiyaki literally stands for “baked sea bream” and is a variation of the imagawayaki sweet. Imagawayaki and taiyaki could be considered to be the same dessert except that imagawayaki are round and taiyaki are in the shape of a fish. Thankfully, though, the recipe for taiyaki is simple and all you need is a little patience, a watchful eye, and a hungry stomach. Shall we go ahead and introduce it? How to make taiyaki.

What You Will Need:

Pancake Mix

200g

Flour

1 tablespoon

Milk

180ml or 4/5 cup.

Eggs

Optional Notes:

This is where it gets a bit tricky. You see, you need the taiyaki double pan to not only put the face, eyes, and scale shaped onto the taiyaki, you also need to be able to bake the edges together so that you can seal whatever you put inside. Here is the other point too, the filling has to be injected, or take the two parts, bake each half one by one, pop them out, put in your filling, close it, line the edges with unused dough, pop them back in for like 30 seconds and you are done. Rather complicated eh? If you do not have a taiyaki double pan, then simply bake the dough as if you are baking a cake, place the two layers on top of the other, pick something, preferably not ice cream, and cut out your shape with a knife. Now we know this is not glorious, but this is the best that you can do without a taiyaki pan.

For fillings, custard cream, anko, and even ice cream, make excellent fillings. Ice cream is the most difficult of the three due to the fact that it melts under heat, so do beware of this. Recently there has been a trend of putting fruit jams and butter inside them as well making a fish-shaped tart. If that is moreso to your liking, then go for it!

How to Cook It:

1
First, beat the egg in a bowl with a whisk.
2
Next, add in your flour and continue to beat until it is smooth.
3
Now add in your milk and continue to stir.
4
Add in the pancake mix bit by bit until the dough is smooth and no longer lumpy. After that, the dough is ready.
5
Preheat your taiyaki double pan and either spray with oil or coat with butter.
6
Pour in your dough. Note: This recipe will make about 6-8 taiyaki. DO NOT DUMP ALL OF YOUR DOUGH INTO THE PAN. It will overflow and burn.
7
Lower the lid and give it a minute or two!
8
Taiyaki are often injected with their fillings. As we are sure you probably don’t just have a food injector just lying around, there is an easy way to do this.
9
Take your pictures for Instagram/SnapChat/etc. and then, either rip off the head or tail and pour in your fillings. You can also use the piece that you pulled off as a sort of dip. Just know that if you put in ice cream, it will melt under the heat, so be careful.
10
Dig in!

(Note: You are working with hot surfaces so please be careful. )

GET IN ME.

Yum!

Final Thought

And there you have it. That is how Hinako was able to get a delicious pick-me-up while dealing with her new world and her new life. What do you think? Be sure to let us know what you thought of this edition of anime recipes and let us know if there is anything else that you would like us to cover. Until next time!

Editor/Translator

Author: Nagareboshi

American by birth; international by choice. I am trying to bring attention to one of my favorite causes; me. I translate by day and write by night. Aspiring polyglot. My dream would be to be the personal translator for Amuro Namie. Other than that, my hobbies include languages, weightlifting, sleeping, karaoke, GOOD coffee and music. When I’m not doing any of the above, I am most likely laughing hysterically at Willam Belli videos or EV farming. I ain’t gunna Rupologize for it neither. Waifu are Shirai Kuroko & Euaerin.

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