Vegan Soufflé Pancakes

You may be familiar with Japanese soufflé pancakes from TikTok, Instagram and the like: they are incredibly high, fluffy and could be the perfect pillow on a couch. You've probably come across them before, as well as the fact that they're all based on whipped egg whites. Damn! You probably skipped it, scrolled on and didn't give it a second thought. But hey, stop! Soufflé pancakes can also be made vegan - without eggs. How? We'll tell you step by step:

The aquafaba: If the word aquafaba immediately scares you, take a deep breath and exhale because it's really not that bad. If you have a food processor to hand, nothing can really go wrong, and aquafaba also works great with a mixer. It will just take you a few minutes longer (but you'll get muscles in your arms, cool).

Aquafaba is made by whisking the cooking water from chickpeas or beans. The liquid you usually pour away should definitely be collected for this recipe. While the chickpea water turns into a foamy mass during blending, we add powdered sugar, cream of tartar baking powder and xanthan gum. The latter is a „natural gelling agent obtained by fermentation of sugary raw materials.“(source) It improves the stability and consistency of our batter and simply makes it a little firmer. You can easily order xanthan gum online. If you often work with aquafaba, it's well worth buying.

The pancake batter: All you need for the pancake batter is flour, plant-based milk, a little vanilla flavoring and a pinch of salt. We have already added the sugar to the aquafaba in the form of powdered sugar so that we can disregard it here. The aquafaba is then carefully folded into the pancake batter, and the batter is ready.

In the pan: Now it's getting exciting! There are two ways to fry the pancakes: a) using a piping bag and b) using small aluminum rings that you make from aluminum foil. Both work, but with option b) your pancakes will be much thicker, which is obvious because the rings hold the batter in place until it is baked through. But version a) also works great, the pancakes just won't be quite as high. For the aluminum rings, simply wrap aluminum foil several times, form a circle, tape it down and then oil the aluminum ring well so that no pancake batter sticks. But no matter which method you choose, you will need patience, because a lot of the batter simply takes a long time to bake through. To make this work even better, you should always leave the lid on the pan. At the end, you can use a skewer to test whether the batter is really cooked through.

Toppings: We opted for a seasonal and classic topping and used fresh berries and maple syrup. However, if these are not in season, you can also use frozen berries, vegan butter, powdered sugar, chocolate cream, nut butters and whatever else comes to mind.