Fluffy Japanese Souffle Pancakes 🥞 (It tastes like no other!)

Hey guys, welcome to pastry living. This is Aya. Today let's make soft like a cloud japanese souffle pancakes. Let's get started. So as first thing first, before you start, prepare the toppings for your pancakes, any toppings of your choice. And everything else you can prepare ahead such as plates, maybe drinks, so that you can enjoy the warm pancakes as soon as they are ready. And as a preparation, sift cake flour and salt together. Cake flour is very lumpy, so don't skip this part. And also spread a small amount of oil all over the pan. And it's important to preheat the pan at low heat for a long time, so that it's going to be nice and hot when you pour the pancake batter. And now separate eggs to make meringue. Ensure that the eggs and the tools are clean with no oil, liquids or any residue, because they all prevent the egg whites from whipping properly. Add lemon juice. The acid helps to stabilize the meringue. And whip. Once it looks nice and bubbly like hand soap, add about half of the sugar. And continue whipping. Add the remaining sugar. When the tip folds over like this, when lifting a whisk. And continue whipping until it gets fluffy and stiff, until the tip stands straight like this. Add cornstarch. It also helps to stabilize the meringue a little bit. Mix well until it doesn't look lumpy. Add yolks and mix very roughly like this. Add the sifted flour. And continue folding just until you don't see any flour. Every souffle pancake recipe I encountered before mixes egg yolks, liquids and flour first and add meringue to its mixture, just like when making classic chiffon cake. And after multiple trials and errors, I now add flour and liquids to the meringue separately toward the end. With this method, the pancakes feel slightly less chewy and bouncy. I personally love it. It feels like between chiffon cake and regular sponge cake. Okay, now I don't see any flour, so add milk. And continue folding until evenly incorporated. So here, avoid overmixing the batter to prevent it from getting loose, because it leads to flat pancakes. Clean the spatula, the bottom and the sides of the bowl to ensure it's evenly blended. And use it right away as soon as it's done, while the condition is the best. Today I'm using a pastry bag to pipe the batter. You can also use a ziploc or ice cream scoop, just like this. Pipe high to make the pancakes nice and thick. Don't be afraid of making it tall, because it spreads more as it's cooked. Add about half teaspoon of water and close the to steam cook them. This is very effective to cook them evenly, especially when you're using regular pan without the special griddle, which can control the temperature a lot better. So continue heating at low heat for about three minutes. After three minutes, pipe the rest of the batter on top. You can pipe all the batter at once, but I find you can make a little bit thicker pancakes by adding the batter on top later. Add more water, close the lid, and continue cooking at low heat for another four minutes. It's important to cook them at low heat with medium to high heat. The pancake slides a lot, but it also corrupts more later. By coating a little bit of oil on the cooking spatula, you can flip the pancakes a little bit more easily without hurting the soft surface. Touch the sides very close to the bottom, like here. The pancakes are ready to flip when they feel dry. It got a little bit too dark than my ideal. I preheated the pan a little bit longer than usual since I was filming. If that happened to you too, just add a little bit of powdered sugar on top and everything will look just fine. Add about half tablespoon of water again, close the lid, and cook at low heat for another four minutes. The pancakes are ready when the sides feel dry and bouncy. Enjoy them while they are warm for the best taste. I love eating them with slices of butter and honey, and when I have extra time, I prepare fresh fruits, jam, and whipped cream to make a fancy cafe plate. These pillowy soft pancakes taste incredible with honey and butter. This is definitely not an everyday pancake, but if you are up for a new challenge, give it a try. It'll be a perfect dessert for special events such as anniversary, mother's day, valentine's day, or as a special breakfast to excite your kids and family. It is very important to heat the pans beforehand, and I think that's the biggest tips that a lot of people miss. When the pan is not heated enough, the batter tends to spread more as you cook it, and when the heat is too strong, pancakes get burnt, and they actually rise a lot, but also shrinks more. And the next important thing is meringue, obviously, because this is going to make these pancakes nice and fluffy. When the meringue is too soft, batter gets looser, which leads to more flat pancakes, and when the meringue is too stiff, it's just going to be a little harder to blend everything together, and it lies a lot, but also shrinks more. And also do not overmix the batter, because it's going to make you looser. Mix just until the milk is incorporated, and also do not wait too long after the pancake batter is ready. Pour it into the pan right away while the condition is the best. And lastly, like I said in the beginning of the video, prepare everything in advance, because once you start whipping the meringue, everything moves so quickly. Get your ingredients ready, and toast all the toppings, and I gotta say this is not the easiest pancakes. Your first pancakes might not come out as perfect as you hoped, but follow those steps I mentioned in the video, and I think you're gonna make beautiful souffle pancakes after the first try, or maybe after a couple of practices. Alright, that's for today, thank you so much for watching, enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll see you in my next video. Bye-bye!