Fluffy milk bread snuggling mascarpone cream and fresh fruit. # 414: Strawberry & Kiwi Ichigo Sandos

I went rogue with the kiwi for a color pop, but strawberries are the classic. The main Japanese translation of “ichigo” is strawberry, and “sando” is a shortened version of the Japanese word for sandwich.

Most of the ones I saw on our trip to Japan used whipped cream as the filling, but some of recipes online have cream cheese involved. My eyes turned into little heart emojis as I snatched the nearest container of mascarpone. Any excuse to eat mascarpone whipped cream, I’m there. Plus the extra structure from a thicker cheese solves the struggle I was imagining of all the cream squishing out when I cut the sando – the most important moment!

Ok, not as neat and tidy as you would find in a konbini but still super yummy! Mine were more of a knife and fork situation.

Sun rays bringing the drama.

First things first, tangzhong.

I explore it more in my wool roll bread post, but it’s essentially a roux to kickstart the dough.

Dough hook dance.

Officially having too much fun with late afternoon light.

Poof!

Going with a milk wash instead of an egg wash since I’ll be cutting the crust off anyway!

The milk wash gives it a lovely golden color but none of the shine of an egg wash.

My loaves never rise to great heights (gotta work on that) so we’ll be doing rectangular sandos instead of squares sliced into triangles. Still counts!

I saved all the crusts and made a French toast bake for breakfast the next day. Omnomnom.

Half chocolate, half vanilla.

Since I wouldn’t be slicing it down the middle, using whole strawberries didn’t make sense. Instead, I piled up cut fruit with piped on filling and put thin slices of the strawberry and kiwi along the edges to get the “slice shot” look. Work with what ya got.

Hefty.

The strawberry was delightful but I think the kiwi was the undercover winner!

Happy munching!

Bread recipe from King Arthur Flour