So mayonnaise is the ingredient this week to clear.  I always buy the biggest bottle of Kewpie but use it really slowly to make sandwiches.  After almost a month, I still have more than half a bottle left.  Time to speed things up a bit.

What looks like tiny cakes above are actually cooked in pancake’s style, over very low heat for 10 minutes to cook bottom up, then baked in oven for another 10 to cook the top down.  Do you  know that adding vinegar makes more fluffy breads, and does not leave any sour taste behind after baking?  So when this recipe suggests Kewpie mayonnaise to make extra tall pancakes, I knew that I need not worry about any weird aftertaste in the final product.  Plus this recipe uses buttermilk.  Mmmm…. how fluffy and moist can this pancake get, was the only question in my head.  Then I saw bananas on the kitchen counter, so I thought, might as well …

I made a final alteration to the recipe by separating the egg yolk and white, and beating the white to stiff peaks, just like my other fluffy pancake recipe.

The original recipe cooked the entire 4 cm tall pancake over the stove for 20 minutes with a diy mold that allows flipping and cooking the pancake on both sides.  I was too lazy to find and trim a cardboard and line it with parchment paper.  Egg rings are a good alternative, but I don’t have them at home, so I modified my smallest 4 inch tube pan instead, by simply removing the tube.   Remember to grease the insides with butter so that the pancakes can be dislodged easily after they are cooked.

As flipping is not possible with this improvised tool, I send the whole thing, pan and all, into a preheated oven at 160C for the remaining cook time.  Now I wonder if it is possible to bake the entire pancake instead.

These pancakes must be served warm.  The recipe makes 2 thick pancakes.  I ate one in the morning for breakfast with banana slices, blueberries and honey as toppings, and warm the other one up later for afternoon tea.  To heat up pancake,  I placed it in a hot oven that I have just turned off after baking bread at 170C.  After 5 minutes, my pancake is warm again, this time I top with diy cherry sauce (fresh cherries pitted, sugar and lemon juice), blueberries and a sprinkle of icing sugar.

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Extra Thick Mayo Banana Buttermilk Pancakes

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adapted from chopstick chronicles

1 cup self raising flour, sieved
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1 large egg, separated
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 banana, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Japanese Mayonnaise

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Whisk egg white till stiff peak, set aside.

In a bowl, stir buttermilk and mashed banana to mix well.  I use an immersion blender to make banana flavored buttermilk so that I won’t get lumpy pancakes, but this step is optional if you like the idea of finding small pieces of banana inside your pancakes.  Stir in the egg yolk and vanilla extract next.

Combine all dry ingredients, sieved flour, baking powder and raw sugar, in a separate large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.  Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well and whisk to make a uniform batter.  Add in mayonnaise and whisk again.  Finally, fold in the egg white meringue.

To cook pancake, heat up a pan slightly greased with butter.  Grease inner side of the ring mold with butter/oil and place it on the pan.  Over the lowest heat (the lowest flame you can set, it’s a whole 10 minutes of cooking over fire, bottom might get charred if temperature is too high), pour half the pancake batter into the ring mold and cover the mold/pan to let it cook for 10 minutes.  I simply cover my diy mold with a metal cookie tin cover to trap steam and heat during the low heat cooking process.

Once 10 minutes is up, cook the pancake in a preheated oven at 160C for another 10 minutes.  Repeat to make another pancake with the balance batter.

After baking, remove the pancakes from the molds and serve them warm immediately with your preferred choice of toppings.