Extra Thick and Fluffy Japanese Style Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup Buttermilk to make up 1 cup with the egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
Butter maple syrup, ice-cream, etc. for toppings

Instructions

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together into a bowl and combine.
2. In another bowl add the egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract and whisk until just combined.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid mixture in.
4. Mix together then add the mayonnaise and mix well to combine. 
5. Place a homemade pancake mold (instructions for this are listed below) onto a frying pan over low heat and pour half the mixture into the mold. (Fill the mold about 70-80%; batter will expand.)
6. Place a lid on the frying pan and leave it for 15 minutes.
7. Once little bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes and the edge is slightly cooked, lift the bottom of the pancake with an egg flipper then cover the pancake with the inverted frying pan and flip the whole thing together before placing it back on the heat. (Multiple can be cooked on the same pan, but it makes this part hard. Just make sure there is room so that they can be flipped.)
8. Place the lid over the top again and cook for another 15 minutes on the other side.
9. To test if it is done, stick a skewer into the pancake. If it comes out clean, then the pancake is cooked through.
10. Remove the pancake from the heat, remove the staples from the mold and take the pancakes out of the mold.
11. Serve the pancakes with your favorite toppings.

Constructing the Pancake Mold: (There is a video for this at the source link.) Take an old milk carton or a thin sheet or cardboard, some baking paper, and a stapler. Cut the milk carton/cardboard and the baking paper into long strips about 4.5 cm wide and 30 cm long. Staple the baking paper onto the cardboard then form it into a circle shape and staple it closed (with the baking paper on the inside). 

Notes: These were interesting to make but perhaps not as good as I wanted them to be considering all the effort that went into making them. I tried to cook 6 at a time, 3 each on two different pans, which was probably a mistake. Each of the kids was full after 1/2 of one of these. Cooking multiple in the pan made step 7 quite a challenge, as there was still a lot of liquid when I tried to flip. After 15 minutes on each side, these didn't seem anywhere near done, so I stuck them in the oven to finish cooking. We didn't have Japanese mayonnaise, but we found a substitute online where we added sugar and apple cider vinegar. I think if I did it over I would just use American mayonnaise without trying to modify it.

Source: Chopstick Chronicles