The recent news that Denny’s Japan is offering Pikachu pancakes—but only on the kids menu—has some readers, and us too if we’re being honest, pining for Pokémon sweets. While store-bought kits have had less than perfect results, even when they’re for cakes, we are determined to produce cute ones at home!
Thankfully, with this recipe, you can make your own “Peachu” pancakes! Pichu is essentially a baby Pikachu, making it even cuter, right?
▼ Aw, isn’t it adorable?
To make Peachu, you’ll need:
- 2 cups frozen blackberries
- 1 1/2 cups frozen peaches
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 6 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 3 tbsp butter
- about 1 cup Greek yogurt or whipped cream
First, you’ll want to thaw the fruit. Of course you can use fresh fruit if you can get it, in which you can just skip this step.
While you’re at it, take out the milk, butter and egg, since it’s best if they are at room temperature. In the meantime, enjoy your favorite Pokémon game or episodes to get in the mood! Wearing a red baseball cap and muttering to yourself about being the “very best” will also help.
When your berries are nice and soft, put them in a small saucepan along with three tablespoons of your sugar, the lemon juice and one-quarter cup of water. Stir them all together and cook on medium-high for about five minutes.
▼ It should look like this when you’re done.
While the berries are cooling, you can go ahead and measure out the ingredients for the pancake batter. Add the remaining sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to a mixing bowl and stir well. Beat your egg and stir in the butter. If you don’t want any lumps of butter in the mixture you can melt it before adding it to the egg, though it’s not absolutely necessary.
Next, mix the milk and vinegar together to make a buttermilk substitute, which will make your pancakes a little fluffier than if you use just milk. Set those aside for a few minutes so the vinegar can do its thing.
▼ When it looks like this, it’s ready.
While you wait, you can finish the berry sauce. Now that it’s cool, blend it until it’s smooth. We made ours on the thick side, but feel free to add up to a quarter cup of water if you’d prefer a runnier sauce.
Take a look at your peaches now. For each pancake you’d like to make (the recipe makes enough for about six), pick out one small peach slice and cut it into two thinner pieces. These will become the ears.
▼ Make sure they’re not too thick. They should look about like this.
Dry those with a paper towel, set them aside, and dice the rest of the peaches.
Stir the wet and dry ingredients together, but don’t mix them too much or your pancakes will be too dense. It’s perfectly fine if there are some lumps in the batter.
Heat a skillet on a medium-high heat. You’ll know it’s hot enough when a drop of water “dances” on the surface. Take the skillet off the heat for a moment, because the next part can be difficult to do while the batter cooks. Add just enough butter to grease the pan. Then spoon in just enough batter to make a four-inch pancake. Take two sets of peach slices, coat them in batter and arrange them in the pan to look like ears.
Take some of the diced peaches and scatter them over the “face” of your pancake. Then coat them with a little more batter from your spoon so they don’t stick to the pan when you flip it.
Now you can return the pan to the heat, smoothing out the shape with your pancake turner.
Normally, you’ll look for bubbles to know when to turn the pancakes, but the peaches make that a little difficult. You’ll have to lift up the edge and check the color.
When it’s golden brown, slide the pancake turner under each part of the pancake to loosen it before flipping. We used two turners, okonomiyaki style! You’ll want to be careful not to break off the ears in the process.
After cooking the other side, set aside while you make the other pancakes. If you have an oven, you can set it to 200°F (93°C) to keep the cooked pancakes warm until the rest are done.
When you’re ready, get a pastry/piping bag for the berry sauce. (If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can use a plastic storage bag.) Snip a little off the end or use a small, round tip. Make sure the hole is not so small that the seeds will block it. Put in just enough sauce so that it fits your palm comfortably.
▼ It helps to put the pastry bag in a cup while you fill it.
▼ We’re ready to go!
Stack your Peachu pancakes with Greek yogurt or whipped cream spread between each layer. We used three pancakes to a stack. Use the blackberry sauce to line the ears, letting it dribble down the sides.
▼ Well, surely it’ll look better when it’s done.
Next, make big, round eyes and a smiling mouth.
▼ Oh, my. We’re… we’re not sure what happened there.
Smear on a little sauce with the back of the spoon to give it rosy cheeks. Remember to pipe on a little collar, too.
▼ Oh, sweet Mewtwo! What have we created?!
Clean up the plate wherever the sauce has run too much. Serve with a bowl of blackberry sauce for dipping, and you’re ready to chow down!
▼ So now, we just need to *gulp* eat this.
You know, maybe it’s a curse. Maybe u can’t haz Pokénoms at home, unless you want it to be a terrifying pile of awful…
▼ *Whimper*
If you think you can pull off a better Pokémon pancake, be sure to drop us a line! That said, if they’re total disasters we’d like to hear about those too…
Sources: PBS Parents, Food
Images: Bulbapedia, RocketNews24