Fruit sandwiches, known as "fruits sando" in Japan, are a very popular snack/light lunch and ubiquitous across the country's cafes and convenience stores. They first appeared at smart coffee houses in the Ginza, Tokyo (the capital's poshest retail district) during the 1920s and 1930s when white bread, strawberries & cream were considered luxury items by most people.
"Fruit sando" are also simple to make at home: all you need is some soft white bread, fresh fruit (strawberries are the most popular filling) and some cream. Strictly speaking, the base of the sando, the bread, should be milk bread (what the Japanese call "shokupan"). Milk bread is a fluffy, very soft style of white bread beloved of the Japanese. Honestly, if you're paying Y1,000 (£7 /$8.50) for a fruit sando in a cafe in Tokyo I'd expect shokupan too! But a lot of people make fruit sando at home with plain white bread and they still taste pretty damn good.
Moving on to the contents of a fruit sando - I am not a fan of overfilling the sandwich with cream but you can vary the amount if you fancy a bigger creamy hit. (There are substitutes for cream - you could use mascarpone and some recipes even use custard combined with cream). I use a little honey to sweeten the cream but again, you can substitute vanilla essence or sugar if you prefer. The fruit on display here are strawberries and kiwi but once you've got the basics down, the sky is the limit with what you can put in a fruit sando! So, why not give one of these fruity beauties a go?
You can find the written recipe just below and the Youtube tutorial by clicking Japanese Fruit sando or scroll to the bottom of the page.
Go on, get fruity! Kurumi XXXX.
If you prefer, you could try my Japanese Berry fruit Sando recipe here.
Japanese fruit sandwich
ingredients:
(makes 2 portions)
4 thin slices of white bread, crusts removed*
1 tsp honey
150ml whipping cream
3 strawberries, sliced into 3 pieces
5mm x 2 kiwi slices
how to:
whisk the cream until the peaks stand
add the honey to the cream and briefly whisk again
spread 1/4 of whipped cream on each slice of bread
put the kiwi slices in the center and place 4 strawberry slices around it
form your sandwich and cut into quarters
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