Most houses and apartments in Japan don’t come with ovens, unlike some other countries, so often people are left unsure of how to go about baking, or maybe even giving it up completely. However, baking in Japan is very popular, in fact, Japanese bakery goods such as anpan, melonpan, souffle pancakes, Japanese bread, and many more are all popular around the world. There is also a deep-rooted appreciation of French patisserie – you don’t have to walk far in Japan before coming across a patisserie or bakery.

If you want to try baking without an oven, we’ll discuss alternative ways to ‘bake’, alternative appliances instead of purchasing an oven for baking, as well as some no-bake desserts you can make.

Air fryer baking

Apart from buying yourself a small toaster oven, one way to get around baking without an oven is air fryer baking. If you’ve been considering purchasing an oven for baking, perhaps consider getting an air fryer instead.

Air fryers have become increasingly popular over the last few years for good reason. They are convenient to store, easy to use, and clean, they are quick and don’t take long to heat up, and they are great for making indulgent dishes a little healthier since you can avoid using oil. They work just like an oven by circulating hot air but since they are much smaller, they work a lot faster.

Air fryer baking is a great way to enjoy baking without an oven. If you invest in a larger air fryer you will have enough space to bake cakes, cupcakes, small batches of cookies, pies, pastries, doughnuts, and even artisan loaves of bread.

Food cooks quickly in an air fryer so you might want to keep it at a lower temperature, if you are baking a cake or something similar, covering the top of the cake with foil is a great trick for ensuring that your cake cooks through without burning the top so that the products of your air fryer baking can be as delicious as oven-baked goods, you’ll soon be a pro at baking without an oven!

There are a variety of air fryer baking recipes available, and once you have got to grips with baking with an air fryer you can adapt your favorite oven baking recipes!

If the idea of air fryer baking appeals to you, please check out our post on 5 Reasons Why You Should Get an Air Fryer in Japan for more information.

Fish Grill

Another way to try baking without an oven is by using the fish grill that comes built into a lot of Japanese apartments.

The fish grill is great for roasting food if you cover it with foil so that the top doesn’t get burnt. If you don’t want to get a toaster oven for baking, you can use the fish grill to toast bread, cook small pizzas, cook lasagna, and similar dishes, you might even be able to bake a small batch of cookies.

Using a fish grill is not the easiest way to bake, but with some patience and creativity, you can use it to satisfy your desire to do some baking in Japan.

Toaster ovens and convection microwaves

If you are planning to do a lot of baking in Japan, perhaps you might want to consider investing in a toaster oven for baking. This is probably the obvious choice if it’s available to you since a toaster oven is the closest you’ll get to a big built-in oven.

Using a toaster oven, you will be able to bake most of the things you’d usually bake in the oven, but possibly in much smaller batches. There are some downsides to toaster ovens since they can take up a lot of space and can be difficult to store, they can be expensive, you may not be able to find one big enough to bake the things you might want to bake, and they may not be as versatile as other appliances. For these reasons, we recommend considering some of the other options we’ve suggested as an alternative!

Another convenient alternative is the convection microwave, which you can use for some baking. Mug cakes have become increasingly popular and these only need to be baked in a microwave, and it’s usually a fairly quick process.

No oven desserts

Though baking in Japan is very popular, so is a large variety of no oven desserts. Some popular Japanese no oven desserts include Japanese souffle pancakes, raindrop cakes, purin, and cheesecake.

Wagashi

One of the traditional Japanese no oven desserts is wagashi – the traditional Japanese confections often served with green tea. Daifuku (often known as mochi) is pounded sweet rice stuffed with a filling such as anko (red bean paste) and it’s one of the most popular wagashi. Dango is a rice flour ball usually put on a stick.

Wagashi might be tricky to make at home – some of the treats are truly works of art in themselves – so it is worth trying artisan wagashi. However, there are workshops for any curious about making wagashi, perhaps you can take what you learn in the class and start making wagashi instead of baking in Japan!

Cheesecake

Cheesecake works well as a no oven dessert if you are wanting to avoid purchasing an oven for baking. If you’d like to try baking a Japanese souffle cheesecake, you can create a bain-marie using your rice cooker rather than an oven for baking it. Alternatively, there are so many no-bake cheesecake recipes out there.

Raindrop cakes

Raindrop cakes, also known as mizu shingen mochi (water cakes), are used in making agar (which works like gelatine). The unique raindrop cake grew in popularity due to its eye-catching translucent appearance. You don’t need an oven for raindrop cakes since you only boil the ingredients in a pan and then leave them to cool in molds.

Pancakes

Pancakes are a classic no oven dessert, in your frying pan, you can opt for making thing crepes, thick scotch pancakes, or for a more cake-like experience you can try making Japanese souffle pancakes, which are a very popular dish for baking in Japan.