I love dorayaki. A pancake sandwich, typically stuffed with red bean paste. Coming from a much more Westernized background (putting it politely, whereas the more accurate way of saying it is that I was raised in Torrance, therefore was bleached of cultural appreciation), I love stuffing my own dorayaki with fillings other than the traditional red bean paste as well, such as a cheesecake mousse.

I wanted to embrace traditional Japanese desserts, being strawberry daifuku and matcha cheesecake. Strawberry daifuku is a mochi that is stuffed with red bean paste and strawberries. I incorporated red bean and strawberries into my filling, but for the batter, I went ahead and infused it with mochi, just to give it a springier texture and be a nod to the dessert it was inspired by. For the matcha cheesecake, I prepared a cheesecake mousse, which is whipped cream cheese infused with simple syrup, infused with matcha, as my filling to a matcha infused batter.

Strawberry daifuku:
Mochi infused batter:
1/4 cup mochiko + 3 tablespoons water
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cups milk

Microwave the mochiko with water. Combine with eggs, sugar, baking soda, and whip. Slowly add the milk into the mixture, and continue to mix until combined and smooth. Finally, add in the flour.

In a lightly oiled pan, cook off the pancakes at 1 tablespoon’s worth of batter for 1-2 minutes per side, on medium heat.

For the fillings:
Anko (azuki jam)
Strawberries
Agave

Dice the strawberries. Drizzle in agave.

Assembly:
Sandwich the pancakes with the berries and anko.

Matcha cheesecake:
Matcha batter:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cups warmed milk
2 teaspoons matcha powder

Stir together the matcha with milk that has been heated to 150 degrees F until it is dissolved and the milk is light green. Combine the other ingredients into the mixture.

Cook just like how you would the strawberry daifuku batter.

Matcha cheesecake filling:
6 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons matcha powder
a pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip together the salt, vanilla, and cream cheese. Bring the matcha, water, and sugar to a simmer and mix into the cream cheese.

Assembly:
Spoon the cream cheese mixture between two pancakes.