Kurimu is a Melbourne-born, Japanese inspired pastry brand that recently opened its first Sydney store in Hurstville. Their signature product is a choux pastry filled with creamy custard and topped with croquant that is made by baking almonds coated with sugar and egg whites. It is essentially inspired by Zaku Zaku in Japan.
2021
This is the Original Cream Custard Choux. Each choux is about 20 cm in length, with the croquant offering an audible, caramelised nutty crunch to the firmer choux pastry beneath. The highlight, though, is the cream custard, which is smooth and barely sweetened to contrast the texture and to counter the sweetness of the pastry. This one was baked slightly longer than the ones we’ve enjoyed in Japan, but not served warm so lost some of the enjoyable crunch.
This is the Strawberry Choux. We’ve not enjoyed a strawberry flavoured one in Japan, so this one piqued our interest with its fruitiness. That said, the bright acidity and additional sweetness from the strawberry custard competed with the sweetness of the pastry itself, making for a rather overwhelming pastry despite the freshness of the flavour. We preferred the more balanced flavour of the original.
This is the Charcoal with Cream Custard Croissant ($6.00.95) with fresh cream. We’re a bit confused by the cream custard, which tasted just like barely sweetened heavy cream. That aside, the croissant itself was rather uninspiring — the pastry was flaky but soft both inside and out and relied on the heavy cream to compensate for the butteriness that we usually enjoy in croissants.
This is the Charcoal with Salted Caramel Croissant ($6.00.95). The salted caramel custard here had a thicker texture than the cream and the crunch of the caramelised hazelnuts elevated this croissant from being a mere mediocre pastry.
Not being able to visit Japan at present, we’re glad for any opportunity to enjoy our favourite Japanese snacks here in Australia. Unfortunately, the choux lack finesse and the croissants rely on their striking charcoal black appearance over flavour. While considerably steeper, the croissants at TiNi Artisan Bakery truly hit the mark for luxury croissants.
I’ve long lamented that the locations of Kurimu in Sydney were rather out of the way. Previously, I’d benefited from the generosity of D’s colleagues to enjoy their baked goods from their original Hurstville store, but their latest flavour release hurried me along to visit a branch — inside Westfield Hornsby — myself.
This Lychee and Raspberry Choux ($4.20) was released towards the second half of 2021 and the impetus for my visit. Their original choux is available every day of the week, but only one additional flavour was available on the weekdays, so we lucked out when it was available on a Monday we visited. Coffee is available on Friday-Sunday, I believe.
The choux was about 20 cm in length, with the croquant giving a crunchy nuttiness to every bite, that contrasted with the softness of the unwhipped cream. The lychee flavour in the cream was unmistakable and vibrant with the fruit’s floral notes, while the freeze-dried raspberry atop the croquant added hints of acidity that balanced the sweetness of the cream.
Not yet having tried the coffee flavour, this lychee and raspberry flavour was our favourite over the original and strawberry flavours.
This is the Salted Egg Croissant ($6.00.95) with a salted egg filling. This croissant was a vast improvement over our previous encounter with the croissants at Kurimu — the pastry was flaky and buttery more in line with a French croissant than the pillowy softness of the earlier tasting. The smooth salted egg filling amplified the buttery qualities with its savoury quality, yet added just a touch of balanced sweetness to bring the croissant back to dessert territory.
Finally, this was the Wild Berry Slushy (jumbo, $3.00). A bright, yet natural berry flavour came through with balanced acidity and sweetness. It still stained our tongues a red colour but the flavour was more sophisticated than we expected of a slushy.
2022
Kurimu opened recently at Parramatta along with their sister brand Hokkaidō Cheese Tart. Shortly after opening, we were excited by the launch of their new Mango & Jasmine Choux ($4.50).
It consisted of an almond-flavoured choux pastry (the same base as the rest of their flavours) filled with mango and jasmine-flavoured custard and topped with mango icing. The choux was crunchy and light and gave way to a remarkably enjoyable tropical mango flavour that was heightened by the dewy notes of jasmine that came through gently on first tasting the custard before lingering pleasantly in the finish.
A couple of months later, we managed to get our hands on their Coffee Choux ($5.20).
It consisted of an almond-flavoured choux pastry (the same base as the rest of their flavours) filled with coffee-flavoured custard and topped with chocolate icing. The crunch of the choux with the almond was delicious paired with the coffee custard, which was bold yet balanced in sweetness and bitterness.
Kurimu is located at various locations in Sydney, Australia.