Japanese Soufflé Pancakes with Sake Poached Plums
Philli Armitage-Mattin created this dish for Masterchef UK Professionals Season 18 as a Skills Test demonstration. Cloud-like Japanese soufflé pancakes made by folding a stiff French meringue into a pancake batter and cooking gently with a lid, served with plums poached in sakura-flavoured sake reduced to a glossy syrup. Monica Galetti observed that Philli made it look incredibly easy but it requires a lot of skill. The key techniques involve maintaining meringue volume through careful folding with a metal spoon, managing very low heat with a lid, adding water in drops only to create gentle steam, and building height by layering batter in two stages. Chef's Notes The skills test challenge - what Philli expected from the contestants: This demo dish is deceptively demanding. Monica identified it perfectly: it looks easy in Philli's hands, but requires mastery of several distinct techniques working in concert: Meringue construction: A classic French meringue whisked to stiff peaks with c…
- Time: 40 min
Source: Relaxed Recipes
Ingredients
- MAKE THE SAKE POACHED PLUMS
- Combine the sake, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice in a medium saucepan over me
- Add the plum quarters and reduce the heat to low. Poach gently for 8–12 minutes
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer the plums to a plate. Return the poaching liquid
- MAKE THE PANCAKE BATTER BASE
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the milk and vanilla extract until co
- Sift the flour and salt over the top — dust the flour in lightly so it aerates a
- MAKE THE MERINGUE
- In a spotlessly clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar u
- Whisk to stiff, glossy peaks — the meringue should hold its shape firmly when th
- FOLD THE MERINGUE INTO THE BATTER
- Take about a third of the meringue and stir it into the yolk batter quite vigoro
- Add the remaining meringue in two additions, folding with a large metal spoon us
- COOK THE PANCAKES
- Heat a large non-stick frying pan over the lowest possible heat. Add the tiniest
- Spoon a generous dollop of batter into the pan, letting it mound naturally into
- Cover with a lid and cook for approximately 4 minutes
- After 4 minutes, add a second spoonful of batter directly on top of each pancake
- Cook for another 4 minutes with the lid on. The pancakes are done when they are
- Carefully flip each pancake using two spatulas and cook uncovered for a final 1–
- ASSEMBLE AND SERVE
- Stack 2–3 pancakes per plate, slightly overlapping. Arrange the sake-poached plu
- Drizzle the reduced sake syrup generously over the plums and let it pool slightl