We test Japanese sweets company’s claim: can one ingredient change pancakes from fluffy to chewy?

This tip will help you to perfect your pancakes, whichever way you prefer them!

How do you like your pancakes in the morning? Personally, I like them to be gently fluffed with just a hint of chewiness, topped with hot butter and a little drizzle of maple syrup. Japan has been undergoing something of a fluffiness renaissance when it comes to baked goods, with packaging extolling how fuwa-fuwa (fluffy soft) and funwari (light and fluffy) its contents are.

Sweets and dairy company Morinaga is one of the foremost names in fluffydom, with their line of pancake products and tasty ice cream sandwiches. But they’ve extended a hand out to the stubborn hold-outs who prefer their pancakes with a bit of bite, by sharing a video guiding viewers on how to alter their cooking process for a fluffy or chewy outcome.

▼ British readers might find the background music strangely familiar.

The key ingredient is kind of shocking. Rather than introducing a chewy ingredient like mochi, as one would typically think to do, Morinaga instead suggests substituting the milk you use to make the pancake batter with water. We decided to put this theory to the test, and prepared the following ingredients for our experiment:

• 2 bags of pancake mix
• 2 whole eggs
• 100 milliliters (0.4 cups) of water
• 100 milliliters of milk

Are you ready? Let’s make some pancakes!

First, prepare two bowls and crack an egg into each one. Add the water to the bowl that’s destined to become a chewy pancake, and milk to the bowl intended to become a fluffy one.

Next, add the pancake mix to each of the bowls and stir around 20 times. It’s okay if there are still a few lumps of flour remaining!

Warm a hotplate or frying pan in preparation, then drop your batter onto it from around a 30-centimeter (11.8 inch) height, in order to remove air from the batter on the way down. Cook on low heat for around three minutes.

Then flip the pancakes over and toast the other side for two minutes.

Just from a glance, you can tell that the pancake cooked to the fluffy specifications is much fluffier. But how does it taste? What is the texture really like?

After taking a bite, we had our answer. The chewy version was much chewier, albeit not as chewy as if we had incorporated something like mochi into the cooking process. Instead, it had a gently springy texture that suits pancakes perfectly. Certainly, it was the chewiest pancake we’d ever managed to make at home in our own kitchen.

▼ The proof is in the pancake!

It’s amazing the difference a small change can have on the final result. We’re definitely going to be more conscientious with how we cook in the future, whatever its intended texture!

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