Guide and text: Keiko Nagahama Photograph: Mutsuko Kudo
Christmas is approaching. Pre-orders for Christmas cakes have already begun at confectionery shops everywhere. Most popular sweets are sold in a limited quantity; I will introduce some recommended sweets for Christmas souvenirs that will be useful from now on.
Kyobashi Edogrand is directly connected to Kyobashi Station. Based on the concept of the intersection of history and future, this complex with charming shops from long-established shops that have been loved in Kyobashi to much-talked-about popular shops is said to be the new face of Kyobashi.
On the first and second floors of this building, Toshi Yoroizuka TOKYO stands out from the main street.
The first floor is its patisserie. In addition to classic desserts, the shop offers a spectacular array of items, including chocolate made from cacao beans from Toshi Yoroizuka Cacao Farm in Ecuador, extremely popular bread from Ichiyajo Yoroizuka Farm in Odawara, low-carb sweets, and Yoroizuka Farm brand products made in collaboration with local farmers and local governments.
A cafe also located on the first floor offers popular light meals, such as side dishes. On the second floor, a dessert salon is located where you can enjoy a course of dessert along with wine or champagne.
“It’s the culmination of Toshi Yoroizuka, bringing together everything he has accumulated up to now. Kyobashi is an attractive town where old and new coexist. It’s not just about what you can see, but also about festivals, human connections, and other good old customs in this town. I’m very happy to have been given the opportunity to have a flagship shop in Kyobashi,” said owner-chef Toshihiko Yoroizuka.
Plenty of sweets are offered exclusive to the Kyobashi shop that embody this saying. During the Edo period, Kyobashi flourished as the first bridge heading from Nihonbashi to Kyoto. Its new specialty, Kyoubashi, is a pound cake baked with dashi and yuzu.
“Kyobashi has long been home to many dried bonito wholesalers, so I focused on dashi. I combined it with yuzu to remove its fishy smell and bring out the richness of bonito. It also goes well with butter,” said Chef Yoroizuka.
Other exclusive products are only available at the Kyobashi shop. Linzer torte is one of them. I prefer rich, dense cakes over fluffy sponge ones, so this is my top pick. In Switzerland and Vienna, where Chef Yoroizuka trained, this traditional sweet is made with hazelnuts and red currant or raspberry jam, but it is arranged using Shinshu rhubarb jam and walnuts. The dough is extremely buttery and filled with sweet and sour rhubarb and fragrant walnuts.
Fresh and delicious! This traditional sweet has been reborn as a refined and delicious treat. It can be carried around at ambient temperatures, so it’s perfect as a gift or souvenir.
And speaking of Christmas, it’s definitely stollen. When December comes around, it’s synonymous with the Christmas cake that appears in confectionery shops and bakeries. Many shops offer their own stollens, but as Chef Yoroizuka said, “Ours is a rich, heavy, old-fashioned stollen made with lots of butter, and it feels heavy in your hand!”
It’s much heavier than it looks. A pound cake filled with dried fruit soaked in brandy is dropped into melted butter! After soaking in butter, it is dusted with powdered sugar to prevent it from drying, and the powdered sugar soaked in butter is irresistibly delicious!
Personally, Pain d’épices is one of my top five favorite sweets. The Christmas Pain d’épices is made with a soft dough full of spices and fruit. Baked in a cute Gugelhupf mold. Its small size makes it perfect as a small souvenir.
Noel White Box is filled with colorful baked sweets. Its box shaped like a large white book is lovely. It’s sure to attract attention if you bring it as a gift to a large party.
“Although this shop is a culmination of my work, I would like to develop it even further. I have still so many things to do. I want to evolve together with Kyobashi,” said Chef Yoroizuka with a sparkle in his eye. I look forward to seeing the chef’s new ventures.
★ denotes Christmas exclusive products. Pre-order dial (03-5357-8615) is available. Handover at the shop will be available from December 22 to 25. Rural delivery is also available.
When one thinks of Christmas cake, everyone thinks of a whole cake with pure white whipped cream and bright red strawberries. This is perfect for the tune of Jingle Bells. The quality of the whipped cream and strawberries is the key to this simple cake. I think Kyobashi Senbikiya is proud of the unquestionable taste of both of them.
Kyobashi Senbikiya was founded in 1881 as a fruit merchant and is one of Japan’s representative long-established fruit shops. Although it is famous for its muskmelon and other high-end fruits, the delicious sweets are not to be missed.
Strawberry Shortcake No. 5 (15 cm in diameter) (JPY 6,480). No. 4 (12 cm in diameter) with five strawberries (JPY 4,320) is also offered. Available for pre-order (limited quantity). Handover will be available from December 22nd to the 25th.
The classic Christmas cake is Strawberry Shortcake with fresh cream and a lot of strawberries. Strawberries are placed not only on top of the cake but also inside, so you can’t wait for the moment when large strawberries appear when you cut the cake open. The cream is rich yet melts in the mouth quickly. It is so milky and delicious that the aroma of milk lingers in the air for a while after you eat it.
Tamotsu Nakamura, manager of the sales planning department, said, “Regardless of the type of strawberries, we choose the best ones at the time.”
These strawberries are wonderfully delicious! Sweet, moderately tart, and full of juice. Whenever I eat fruits here, I always feel that fruit is not only sweet, but also sour and sometimes bitter, which is what makes it truly delicious.
Strawberry Shortcake is a cake that reminds me of this. Strawberries are large and tall. Even though they are cut into large pieces, they easily fit in the stomach because of its light melt-in-your-mouth texture.
For families with a small child, I also recommend Happy Christmas decorated with Santa Claus and chocolate house marzipans, or Chocolate Christmas made with rich Belgian fresh chocolate cream.
On the other hand, if you are choosing for a household of adults only or for someone who likes alcohol, I recommend the Premium Fruit Cake.
This is an adult fruit cake, with plenty of nuts and dried fruits soaked in brandy, and the dough is also generously flavored with brandy. The small size weighs 1 kg, and the large weighs 2 kg. It’s the kind of heavy and packed cake I love!
And the fact that it comes in a wooden box is another big reason why this cake has become a staple souvenir for me. When you open the plain wood box, you’ll be greeted by a well-baked dark brown color. So sophisticated! Not flashy, but its heavy, its dignified appearance is sure to make it a memorable gift.
If unopened, the cake will stay delicious for 60 days, making them a great souvenir for someone you can’t meet just before Christmas.
For those who want more of a fruity taste of Kyobashi Senbikiya, I highly recommend Gourmet Dessert Winter Set. This set contains baked apples and long-selling Kurinuki Jelly. When baked apples start appearing at Kyobashi Senbikiya, I think, “Ah, winter has come,” and as I feel the cold even more than the actual temperature I feel, it’s a gift I can’t miss this season.
This is an old-fashioned method of baking whole Jonathan, which is now rare, in an oven, dousing them in cinnamon sugar, honey and brandy. The peel is baked so soft that it can be cut with a fork, and the inside is packed with the delicious sweet and sour apple flavor. When heated, its aroma becomes even more intense and its softness becomes even softer, making it even more special.
Kurinuki Jelly is made by jellying all freshly squeezed juice filled in hollowed-out oranges and grapefruits. “I intentionally leave a little bit of the fruit pulp in the lid. Squeezing it when you eat it will make it feel even fresher,” said Nakamura.
When you eat exactly as directed, you feel it incredibly fresh! The jelly is solidified, then crushed and solidified again, giving it a beautiful sparkle. Fruit pulp left inside the fruit peel as the container makes it twice as delicious when you eat scooping up the jelly and fruit pulp.
To begin with, Kyobashi Senbikiya offers delicious fruit. The fact that they preserve that goodness while turning it into fruit sweets even more delicious than its fruit is a testament to the skills of a long-established store well familiar with fruit. I also recommend Ice Cream & Sorbet when you want to feel more than fruit.
Toshi Yoroizuka TOKYO
Address
1F Kyobashi Edogrand, 12-2-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku
Tel
+81 (0)3-6262-6510
Business hours
Patisserie: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
1st floor cafe, 2nd floor salon: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Last orders at 7 p.m.)
Regular holidays
Patisserie, 1st floor cafe: None
2nd floor salon: Tuesdays
Website
http://www.grand-patissier.info/ToshiYoroizuka/index.html