Takoyaki

Takoyaki

Takoyaki is a super popular Japanese street food. 

You see these street vendors in Osaka masterly masterly flipping these battered dough balls with skewers. A bite of chewy octopus and light and airy batter. It’s smothered in sauce, topped with wiggling katsuobushi, and sprinkled with aonori. 

I usually hate buying single-use kitchen gadgets because my kitchen space is limited. However, with the pandemic, since we can’t travel much, I thought I’d spend $30 to get a taste of Japan. I’ll also be developing mini-dorayaki or pancake recipes with this pan. If you have any ideas on how I should use it, let me know! 

Here are all the items you need for this recipe below on my amazon storefront!

Ingredients

Toppings

• 100g Octopus 
• 2 tbsp Beni Shoga (pickled red ginger)
• 2 Scallions, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp Tenkasu (tempura scraps)

• As for the toppings, feel free to experiment with whatever you want to put in! I've had takoyaki with bacon, cabbage, corn, cheese, and even hotdogs lol. The world is your ball!

Batter

• 1 cup AP Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 ½ cup Dashi Broth
• 2 Eggs
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Soy sauce

Sauce

• Okonomiyaki sauce or Bulldog Sauce
• Japanese Mayonnaise
• Katsuobushi or Bonito Flakes
• Aonori 

So one of the core ingredients is tenkasu which are these tempura scraps. You can buy it at a Japanese specialty store, but it might not be available to many of y'all. Some substitutions are rice krispies, or even panko or breadcrumbs. It’s really there to give structure to the takoyaki and create room within the dough to have a light airy texture. 

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together. 
2. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients and the salt together. 
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Whisk until there are no dry spots. Do not over mix as we do not want to work the gluten— we want a light airy dough!
4. Transfer the batter into an easily pourable container.

5. Heat the takoyaki pan on medium heat. Once the pan has come up to temperature, drizzle in 1 tbsp oil. Drop the heat to low. 
6. Fill the spheres with the batter. It’s good to overfill the pan and have excess dough on top. If we only fill up to the crevice, it’ll only be enough dough for half the sphere. The biggest mistake people make is underfilling it which makes sad deflated balls.
7. Add the octopus, beni shoga, scallions, and tenkasu. 
8. Using a metal chopstick or skewers, flip the takoyaki ball by 90 degrees. Repeat for rest.
9. Keep flipping 90 degrees until the takoyaki balls are golden brown. This should take between 10-15 minutes depending on what pan you’re using!

10. Transfer onto a plate and top with sauce, mayonnaise, katsuobushi, and aonori! Enjoy!! 

Takoyaki

4 from 28 votes

Recipe by Doobydobap Course: Appetizers, Snacks, late night food, streetfoodCuisine: JapaneseDifficulty: Easy

Yields

16

Takoyaki Balls

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

There’s a bite of chewy octopus in the center engulfed by light and airy batter. It’s smothered in sauce, topped with wiggling katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and sprinkled with aonori (seaweed flakes). 

Ingredients

• Toppings

• 100 g Octopus

• 2 tbsp Beni Shoga (pickled ginger)

• 2 Scallions, finely chopped

• 2 tbsp Tenkasu

• Batter

• 1 cup AP Flour

• 1 ½ cup Dashi Broth

• 2 Eggs

• 2 tsp Baking Powder

• ½ tsp Salt

• 1 tsp Soy Sauce

• Sauce

• Okonomiyaki sauce or Bulldog Sauce

• Japanese Mayonnaise

• Katsuobushi or Bonito Flakes

• Aonori

instructions

• In a large bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together.
• In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients and the salt together.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Whisk until there are no dry spots. Do not overmix as we do not want to work the gluten— we want a light airy dough!
• Transfer the batter to an easily pourable container.
• Heat the takoyaki pan on medium heat. Once the pan has come up to temperature, drizzle in 1tbsp of oil. Drop the heat to low.
• Fill the spheres with the batter. It’s good to overfill the pan and have excess dough on top. If we only fill up to the crevice, it’ll only be enough dough for half the sphere. The biggest mistake people make is underfilling it which makes sad deflated balls.
• Add the octopus, beni shoga, scallions, and tenkasu.
• Using a metal chopstick or skewers, flip the takoyaki ball by 90 degrees. Repeat for rest.
• Keep flipping 90 degrees until the takoyaki balls are golden brown. This should take between 10-15 minutes depending on what pan you’re using!
• Transfer onto a plate and top with sauce, mayonnaise, katsuobushi, and aonori! Enjoy!!

Notes

• If you don't have tenkasu, substitute with rice krispies, or panko breadcrumbs!
• As for the toppings, feel free to experiment with whatever you want to put in! I've had takoyaki with bacon, cabbage, corn, cheese, and even hotdogs lol. The world is your ball!

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @doobydobap on Instagram and hashtag it #doobydobap dontyuckmyyum

Like this recipe?

Follow us @doobydobap on Pinterest

Recent recipes

5 Ingredient Jjajang Sauce

Recipe 5 Ingredient Jjajang Sauce Dark, saucy, glossy, and meaty. The quintessential Chinese-Korean sauce better than takeaway. Written by Doobydobap Jump to recipe 5 Ingredient

Brown Butter Soy Caramel Cookies

Recipe Brown Butter Soy Caramel Cookies The key take away of this cookie recipe is the nuttiness of the brown butter and the salty umami

Cheesy Cabbage Roll Katsu

It's too OP

Three Chili Mapo Tofu (Vegan)

Spicy and Zingy