Japanese Fruit Sando (Fruit Sandwich)

Japanese fruit sandwiches remind me of a beloved dessert from my childhood: the whipped cream cakes sold at Chinese bakeries, endearingly garish with piped rosettes and carefully arranged fruit. Perhaps that’s why I have a soft spot for these sandwiches—or sandos, short for sandoitchi, the Japanese word for sandwiches. With segments of sweet-tart strawberries, mangoes, or kiwis nestled into a thick cloud of whipped cream, fruit sandos feel like a more portable, bite-sized version of the cakes I grew up eating. Instead of delicate chiffon cake, you have two slices of pillowy milk bread holding it all together. It’s the everyday celebration cake, but in sandwich form.

Origins of the Fruit Sando

Like omurice (fried rice omelette), hambagu (Japanese hamburger steak), and korokke (croquette), sandos belong to a category of Western-inspired Japanese food called yoshoku. Today, sandos are a staple in vending machines and at convenience stores, or konbinis, where shoppers will find rows upon rows of sandwiches all neatly packaged in cellophane. The sandos “are typically untoasted and cold, with mayonnaise-heavy fillings: egg mayo, tuna mayo and so on,” writes journalist Bee Wilson in Sandwich: A Global History. “The crusts are cut off, in emulation of English afternoon tea.”

Bread first came to Japan with Portuguese traders who landed on Tanegashima Island in 1543, but it wasn’t until the late 1800s and then after the Second World War that it became a common part of the Japanese diet. In a story for Slate, writer Nadia Aruguman says that extreme rice shortages during wartime and the American aid that followed—in the form of wheat—was what finally pushed Japanese cooks to embrace wheat. The increasing consumption of bread, along with the proliferation of konbinis later in the 1970s, is likely what resulted in the rising popularity of the sando.

Though the fruit sando may look straightforward to make, it’s often the simplest-looking recipes that are the trickiest to nail. Sandwiching whipped cream and fruit neatly is no easy feat, and there’s a lot to consider. How do you stabilize the whipped cream? Are there fruits to avoid? Do you really have to refrigerate sandos before you cut them? To find out, I made and ate dozens of fruit sandos to come up with the best version—one that’s both delicious and beautiful to look at.

Getting the Whipped Cream Right

Most of the time, you want whipped cream to be soft and airy—the kind that’s ideal for dipping your fruit in or dolloping on top of cake, with a texture you only get when you’ve just reached medium-stiff peaks. With a sando, however, you need cream that’s sturdier. The whipped filling needs to withstand the weight of the fruit and bread, and also be stable enough to not melt too quickly when enjoying on the go. As I discovered after my first test, using pure whipped cream doesn’t successfully hold this texture without turning grainy. Plus, a plain whipped cream filling also lacks depth of flavor.

To avoid this problem, I added mascarpone, a soft Italian cheese, together with the cream—a technique I’ve seen before in my baking career. Mascarpone brings a subtly complex flavor of cultured dairy, and its thickness helps to stabilize the whipped cream. Used in the correct proportions and incorporated thoroughly, it provides both stability and flavor to the whipped cream. All I had to do was figure out how much.

I started with equal parts heavy cream to mascarpone and whipped the two together on medium speed until stiff peaks formed. This proved to be a terribly inefficient way to incorporate the cheese. Since mascarpone is denser than heavy cream, it takes longer to aerate. Even though at first glance the mixture looked like whipped cream, a closer inspection revealed there were still lingering chunks of mascarpone. When mixed together, it was impossible to get silky mascarpone without overwhipping the heavy cream. For a velvety-smooth consistency, it’s crucial to whisk the mascarpone on its own before adding the heavy cream.

As for the ratios, 1:1 was a bit too rich. While delicious, the mixture tasted more like mascarpone than cream—not ideal. Four parts cream to one part mascarpone was almost like there was no mascarpone; I could barely taste it, and texturally, it still resembled plain whipped cream. The winner, ultimately, was using two parts cream to one part mascarpone, which produced a stable and airy, mousse-like texture that, like Goldilocks’ porridge, was just right. Besides the usual additions to whipped cream—vanilla extract and powdered sugar—I added a touch of salt. Even sweet treats benefit from a little seasoning, which draws out more flavor and helps something taste more like itself.

The Best Fruit to Use in a Sando

Strawberries and cream are an unbeatable combination, and they’re my favorite kind of fruit sando, but don’t let that stop you from experimenting with other fruits. Look for fruit that is sweet but sharp enough to offset the richness of the whipped cream filling—kiwis and mangoes are great options. Ideally, the fruit should be firm but soft enough to bite into. (The one exception to the sweet and tart rule? Bananas. Because who doesn’t want to have a banana cream pie in sandwich form?)

Though I’ve seen people use citrus, it’s difficult to adequately sandwich tangerines or clementines without squeezing out a ton of juice, and I don’t recommend them. As a general rule, you want to avoid watery and excessively juicy fruits like watermelon and pineapple. Crunchy fruits like apples may be delicious on their own, but are a bit too hardy for a pillowy sandwich of milk bread and whipped cream.

Here, you’ll find instructions for substituting with kiwis, mangoes, and bananas in this recipe. Like the recipe below, the instructions are for two sandwiches.

To make a fruit sando with kiwis: Using a vegetable peeler, peel four kiwis. Slice kiwis in half lengthwise, set aside. Using an offset spatula, spread about 3 tablespoons whipped cream onto each slice of bread. Set 4 kiwi halves flat-side down onto 1 slice of bread, arranging them diagonally so they form a X. 

To make a fruit sando with mangoes: Using a vegetable peeler, peel mango. Cut each each cheek off the pit, set aside. Using an offset spatula, spread about 3 tablespoons whipped cream mixture onto each slice of bread. Set mango cheek flat-side down onto 1 slice of bread and sandwich with another slice of bread. 

To make a fruit sando with bananas: Peel banana and halve fruit crosswise. Cut banana crosswise again into 2-inch segments, set aside. Using an offset spatula, spread about 3 tablespoons whipped cream mixture onto each slice of bread. Set banana segments flat-side down onto 1 slice of bread and sandwich with another slice of bread.

How to Cut a Fruit Sando

Cutting a fruit sando can be a chaotic affair, but you can keep the mess minimal by adequately chilling your sandwiches. Even if you plan on eating the sandwiches immediately, it’s essential to wrap them tightly in plastic, press down on the bread firmly, and refrigerate them for at least an hour before slicing. (No one will stop you from slicing and eating a fruit sando immediately after you’ve assembled it, but I’m here to tell you that it’s a recipe for a very messy disaster.)

Compressing the sandwich slightly creates an even layer of cream by pushing it into small gaps you may have missed with your offset spatula and also helps the fruit and cream set into one another. I recommend using a sharpie to mark on the plastic wrap where exactly you want to cut in order to reveal the cut sections of the fruit. 

The cooler your sandwich is, the easier it will be to slice. For the cleanest cut, you’ll want to use a serrated knife here and go with a steady back-and-forth motion. Clean your knife between sandwiches and avoid slicing straight down, which will compress the bread at the edges and push the fruit and cream out.