Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/21/rice-cooker-pancakes-look-deli.html
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So many non-rice things you can do with a rice cooker. I love mine.
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I never thought of doing it in a rice cooker, but I’ve been wanting to make the tall Japanese pancakes for a while. I believe in Japan they use ring molds, so I’ve been looking for appropriately-sized ones, but most seem to be too short. Now that I look again, the molds mentioned in this recipe would probably work well: https://www.thekitchn.com/japanese-pancakes-266949
You have to give them plenty of time to thoroughly cook. Unless you are a fan of uncooked middles.
Maybe I should try making them again with a little cooking oil spray to help with pancake extraction.
I just tried this and it was a total failure. The cooker turned off after about 90 seconds with the batter almost utterly uncooked. I then held the button down to see how much cooking could happen before the bottom became burnt. The result was very little overall cooking. Back to the griddle for me.
I’ve seen these made on rice cookers on a couple of youtube videos over the years and it seems like the easiest way to make them since its so low effort and reliable. I havent tried it myself but maybe i should try 
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I don’t know about other brands, but our Zojirushi rice cooker has a cake setting and it works perfectly with pancake batter.
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I also use a ‘smart’ rice cooker to make these and use the ‘cake’ setting as well. I would have sworn I learned about these on BB years ago. I make them for my kids and they love them. The only problem I have is that it’s hard to feed a whole family with them unless you make one huge one and split it or eat in shifts. One cooker can only make one pancake. No matter how much I like them, I don’t think I’ll be able to convince my spouse that we need three or four rice cookers.
My cooker is a Panasonic SR-DE103, FWIW. It’s served me very well for years and I’ve had no reason to want a different one. I would definately replace it with something similar if it failed. They make perfect rice as well–yes, I know, shocking for something called a rice cooker. 
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I presume you start cooking them early. You can keep them warm in the oven until you’ve made enough to feed the family but then it’s still not really an efficient way to go about it. I would think that if you need to make a batch of them you’d need to use a different recipe where you can make them in ring molds or ramekins all in one go.
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If you host holidays, and need to keep things hot, then some of the ones that doubles as slow cookers are very cost effective.
Without meaning to, my wife and I ended up with a rice cooker, an Instant Pot, and 10 slow cookers. It’s a result of us both liking to cook and host before we moved in together, combined with forgetting about things we had at our parents’ house and then mistakenly thinking things got lost when moving. It’s absurd, but it makes Thanksgiving a breeze. Still, I won’t be replacing any that break for a very long time. The most I’ve ever used on one day is 9.
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At one point we were up to four or five slow cookers, but we ended up giving some away to friends. We had one friend who was from a different country and working a tour here who was living in an appartment alone. We gave them a small slow cooker so they could cook a wider variety of dishes–and it got another slow cooker out of our house. 
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for the first time in my life i’ve put on an extra ten pounds and have resolved to lose it . but right after I make one of these babies with bacon . must get this over with asap .
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I’ve made some fair ホットケーキ with this recipe https://www.japanesecooking101.com/hot-cake-recipe/, but I’m forced to admit that they’re nowhere near as tall and fluffy as the real thing. The rice cooker idea sounds brilliant, if only I can convince the rice cooker to comply.
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This recipe works for me. No rice cooker, though.
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I can’t argue with his results, but I don’t get a couple of things.
You don’t want to develop too much gluten so you put it through a sieve? Seems like that would be as agitating as whipping it with a whisk.
And his method doesn’t seem to comply with my understanding of how baking powder works. I thought the stuff was instant. So why make the batter and let it sit overnight?
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Gluten only ‘develops’ once wet, so dry sieving does nothing to it. (it also doesn’t do much of anything otherwise)
Baking powder does start working at room temp, but works faster and better at elevated temperatures. I have no idea why they let it sit overnight.
When I make rice cooker panckaes, I use a generic boxed pancake mix, but I add extra paking powder if I want them fluffy as compared to the default ‘cakey’.
Like most baking, some trial and error is necessary as lots of the process aren’t strictly repeatable from home to home.
He sieves it twice. Once dry, and once wet.
Okay, that second sifting is useless. Yes, you can get small clumps of unmixed dry ingredients in the battery, but I have never seen one survive the cooking process. If you’re going to let it sit overnight like he suggests, they’re all going to get (what the hell, I can’t say they get m o i s t?) Oh, FFS, fix the word filter!
I don’t see any point to letting the batter sit overnight, but it might be fun to try. Make up a batch and refridgerate half of it overnight and make up the other half immediately.
Regarding the censored word: Why is BB censoring words? It’s the mods trying to be cute.
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They look delicious, but I just can’t call something this thick a pancake.
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