Pancakes/Waffles with Dark Chocolate and Coconut Pudding Filling (Taiyaki/Bungeoppang)

Snow day, snow day!  Woohoo!  Sunny and Rosy are thrilled to have me home for the day but they're not so thrilled with the snow.  Unfortunately I still have some conference calls to dial into, but at least I can make something fun at home like these taiyaki/bungeoppang!  Taiyaki is the Japanese version and Bungeoppang is the Korean version, and it's essentially a crisp pancake-y/waffle-y dough with some sort of fun filling inside.  Sweet red bean paste is the common and traditional filling, but there are all sorts of different fillings nowadays including different kinds of puddings, nutella, mashed sweet potatoes, custards, and even savory fillings like cheese or breakfast sandwichy kind of things.  In Japan and Korean it's common to find street vendors cooking these up fresh and serving them piping hot on cold wintry days.  While they now come in different molds, the fish one is the one that I remember growing up and it's the traditional shape oddly enough.

To make these fun little fish, first you need this bad boy

I got mine from Amazon but I bet you could find it way cheaper at an Asian market/store.

I almost didn't post this because there's no real recipe here and it involves a special type of pan, but something about these lil fish-shaped pancakes just make me happy and me and my family love these!  And snow days are just begging for something fun to make and eat!  While I like sweet red bean paste ok, it's not necessarily my favorite and I didn't have any red beans handy so instead I made something I'd like better - dark chocolate and coconut pudding!  Oh yeah.

These are best eaten fresh and hot, but I've frozen them and reheated them ok in the toaster oven.  Sometimes the filling doesn't heat up all the way, but in a way I actually like that even better!  You get the hot and crisp waffle-y texture on the outside and then an ice cream-y pudding inside!

[Update 2/15/14: I think next time I make these I'll add a tablespoon of sugar to the batter to sweeten it up.  If you use a pre-made pancake/waffle mix and you may want to add something to sweeten it up a bit.]

Servings: Depends on how much batter and filling you make.  You need a lot more batter than filling and you can cook two fish at a time.

Ingredients:
Favorite pancake/waffle mix/recipe
14 oz can of coconut milk, divided
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (coarse or sea salt, otherwise you might want to use a little less)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
5 ounces (a little more than 1/2 cup) of dark chocolate, chips or coarse chunks

Instructions:

First we have to make the pudding so that it has time to chill.

• Shake the can of coconut milk well and then in a medium saucepan or pot heat over low heat half the can of the coconut milk, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp salt.  Heat slowly and don't let the mixture boil.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining coconut milk, 3 tbsps cornstarch, and 3 tbsps of cocoa powder.
• Slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan/pot while stirring everything together well. Continue to whisk over low heat for a few minutes until the mixture starts to thicken and resemble a pudding texture.
• Remove the saucepan/pot from heat and stir in 5 oz (approximately 1/2 cup) of dark chocolate and 1 tsp vanilla.  Continue stirring until all of the chocolate is melted and mixed in and the mixture is smooth and pudding-like.  

• Pour pudding into a bowl, cover, and put in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours.  If you want to avoid a skin forming at the top, you can press a plastic wrap against the top of the pudding.

Now it's time to make the taiyaki/bungeoppang!

• There are more traditional recipes for the batter that use cake flour, but if you're lazy like me, just use your favorite pancake/waffle mix.  I used Bob's Red Mill 10-grain pancake/waffle mix in an effort to try to make these a little healthier (ha!) and followed the waffle instructions.
• Oil the pan and heat it over low heat to warm it up.
• Pour some batter into the fish molds so that they're about halfway filled.  You don't have to worry about getting the fin so much because as the batter heats up it'll spread, but the tail is a bit trickier so you may need to add a few dribbles there. 
• Take your pudding (or favorite filling) and spoon it into the middle of the batter.  This will also spread when heated up so be careful to not overfill.  I found that about 1 tbsp was the right amount for me.
• Then pour some more batter on top to cover the filling.  It's ok if you don't cover it completely but try to do as best as you can without overfilling the molds.  See my crappy attempt below (notice how I had to go back and fill in the bald spots in the tail, and I still had more to fill in the left one).

• Shut the lid of the pan and then vigorously flip over the pan and heat the other side.  Flipping the pan with some force helps to dislodge the batter from the other side of the pan.
• Continue cooking for a few minutes, flipping every minute or so until the fish are golden brown.  You can lift up the lid a bit to peek and make sure they're cooked all the way. 

• If you overfilled then there will be some crunchy extras along the fish that you can remove with kitchen scissors, knife, or fingers.
• Eat them quickly while they're still hot!  They'll start to get soggy if you let them sit out so if you don't plan on eating them soon consider freezing them so that you can reheat them later.

And now some pictures featuring my kitchen "helpers"!

 

Sniff the fish!

Rosy's moving to a better begging spot.

Sorry none for you girls, but if you pose nicely I'll give you a special dog treat!

Ok now time to test one of these out...

It's so hard to resist Sunny's begging when she puts on her saddest face and dances around on her back paws!  But no, this is most definitely not a dog-friendly treat!

Pudding-licious!

And lest you think that all my fish were well shaped and browned on my first attempt, here's a plate of my rejects.

Sunny and Rosy offered to help me get rid of these rejects.  But I put them in the trash instead.  And by trash, I mean my stomach.

Chocolate pudding recipe adapted from The Kitchn.

Dark Chocolate Cookies (No Butter or Flour)

My family claims this is the best thing I’ve ever baked for them and it’s probably the healthiest (or least bad for you) sweet that I’ve ever made.  There’s no butter or flour in these and yet they’re super yummy!  Crispy on the outside and gooey and soft in the middle.  If you’re a dark chocolate fan, then look no further.  This cookie is for you!  

Just to warn you, if you make this for others be prepared for lots of requests for these cookies.  My sister demanded that I make two batches for her before she flew back home after the holidays!

Servings: Makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients:
1½ cups dark chocolate chips (approx. 9 oz)
3 large egg whites (room temperature)
2½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Either spray two large baking sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.
• Melt 1 cup of the dark chocolate chips in a microwave for about 1.5-2 minutes.
• Beat 3 large egg whites in large bowl until you get soft peaks. You can use an electric mixer but if you don’t have one you can whisk by hand, it just takes a lot longer and is more tiring.
• Gradually beat in 1 cup of sugar and continue beating until the mixture resembles soft marshmallow cream.
• In a separate bowl, mix together 1 cup of the sugar, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tbsp cornstarch, and ¼ tsp salt.
• Gradually beat in the dry ingredients into the egg whites/sugar mixture.  (If using mixer - low speed).
• Mix into the batter the melted 1 cup of dark chocolate (lukewarm by now) and ½ cup of dark chocolate chips.
• Place ½ cup of the sugar in a bowl or rounded plate.  Roll about 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball and then dip it into the sugar, coating it thickly.  The dough will be very sticky - if you have problems with it, refrigerating the dough for about 5-10 minutes helps).  Place on covered/sprayed baking pan.  Repeat with the remainder of the dough, spacing about 2 inches apart.  I often will use whatever leftover sugar in the bowl and sprinkle it over the cookies.
• Bake until the cookies puff up and the tops crack, which is about 10-12 minutes.  Let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes and then you have to have at least one while it’s still warm!  Eat as many as you want and then you can store the rest in an airtight container.  These also freeze very well too as my sister has informed me.

Optional: Sometimes I like to add in some toasted coconut (about ½ cup that I toast on the stove or in the oven) and that’s delicious as well!

12/29/13 Update
I was having problems with recent batches where the sugar topping would melt into the cookies as they baked. Found that they melt less if I let the dough stiffen up a bit before baking. I also read online that you can try rolling them in granulated sugar first and then powdered sugar. The granulated sugar will melt into the cookies but the powdered sugar will stay on top. Haven't tried that out yet but may some point in the future! Since this was one of my first posts I didn't really have a lot of photos to post at the time, but I have a couple more from the holidays (my sisters special request these!).

Recipe adapted from Picklee.