Dutch Crunch Bread / Tiger Bread / Tijgerbrood / Giraffe Bread ~ with Daring Bakers

Featured on Foodbuzz Top9

Sara and Erica of BakingJDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

Technically, Dutch Crunch doesn’t refer to the type of bread, but rather the topping that is spread over the bread before baking. In Dutch it’s called Tijgerbrood or “tiger bread” after the tiger-like shell on the bread when it comes out of the oven. The final product has a delightful sweet crunch to it that makes it perfect for a sandwich roll. It’s a common option at sandwich shops all over the Bay Area and is often one of the first breads to run out.

Tiger bread (also sold as Dutch crunch in the USA, tijgerbrood or tijgerbol in Netherlands) is the commercial name for a loaf of bread which has a unique mottled crust.

The bread is generally made with sesame oil and with a pattern baked into the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking. The paste dries and cracks during the baking process. The rice paste crust also gives the bread a distinctive flavour. It has a crusty exterior, but is soft inside. The technique can be applied to any shape of bread.

The name originated in the Netherlands, where it is known as tijgerbrood or tijgerbol (translation: tiger roll) where it has been sold at least since the early 1970s. In the USA, it is generally sold as "Dutch crunch". Though recently, some stores began to sell it as "Dutch crust". In the United States it is also sometimes known as dragonette bread.

On 31 January 2012, the UK grocery chain Sainsbury's renamed the product "giraffe bread" after a letter written by a three-year-old named Lily Robinson, suggesting the alternative name, went viral. Sainsbury's stated that "In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our tiger bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our tiger bread to giraffe bread. (Source: Wikipedia)

The heart of this challenge is the topping. Once we have our final loaves, we are required to use the bread to construct a sandwich of our choice! This time also I failed to do the challenge in advance and post it on the reveal date since I was down with fever and cough. But I didn’t want to miss this challenge and I am happy I made it yesterday. For fun I shaped one dough into a small giraffe for my son and he really enjoyed his little cute giraffe bun :D… Thank you Sara and Erica for such a lovely challenge!

Soft White Roll

Servings: Six sandwich rolls

This recipe approximates the quintessential white sandwich roll found throughout the Bay Area. The recipe is simple, quick, and addictive.

Ingredients:

Active dry yeast - 1 tablespoon

Warm water - ¼ cup (it should feel between lukewarm and hot to the touch)

Warm milk - 1 cup

Sugar- 1½ tablespoons

Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons (plus additional olive or vegetable oil for greasing bowl during rising)

Salt -1½ teaspoons 

All purpose flour -Up to 4 cups (I only used 3 cups)

Method:

• In the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes (The mixture should start to bubble or foam a bit and smell yeasty).
• Add in vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook attachment or a wooden spoon, mix at medium speed until the dough comes together.
• Add remaining flour a quarter cup at time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, as shown in the photo below (For us, this usually required an additional 1½ to 2 cups of flour).
• Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
• Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled (or more) in size.
• Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal portions (if you’d like to make rolls) or 2 equal portions (if you’d like to make a loaf) (using a sharp knife or a dough scraper works well). Shape each into a ball or loaf and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (try not to handle the dough too much at this point).
• Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.
• Coat the top of each roll or loaf with the topping as described above. While the original recipe recommends letting them stand for 20 minutes after applying the topping, but will get better results by putting them directly into the oven.
• Once you've applied the topping, bake in a preheated moderately hot 380ºF/190°C/gas mark 5 for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Let cool completely on a wire rack before eating.

Dutch Crunch Topping

Servings: This recipe should make sufficient topping for the above 6 soft white roll recipe.

Ingredients:

Active dry yeast - 1 tablespoon  

Warm water – ½ cup (105-115º F) (41-46°C)

Sugar- 1 tablespoon

Vegetable oil -1 tablespoon

Salt - ¼ teaspoon

Rice flour - ¾ cup (white or brown; NOT sweet or glutinous rice flour)

Method:

• Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a whisk; beat hard to combine. The consistency should be like stiff royal icing – spreadable, but not too runny. If you pull some up with your whisk, it should drip off slowly. Add more water or rice flour as necessary. Let stand 15 minutes.
• Coat the top of each loaf or roll with a thick layer of topping. We tried coating it with a brush but it worked better just to use fingers or a spoon and kind of spread it around. You should err on the side of applying too much topping – a thin layer will not crack properly.
• Let stand, uncovered, for any additional time your recipe recommends. With the Soft White Roll, you can place the rolls directly into the oven after applying the topping. With the Brown Rice Bread, the loaves should stand for 20 minutes with the topping before baking.
• When baking, place pans on a rack in the center of the oven and bake your bread as you ordinarily would. The Dutch Crunch topping should crack and turn a nice golden-brown color.

Note: You should not prepare the topping until the bread you've selected to bake is almost finished rising (~15 minutes from baking).

Chicken Sandwich

Ingredients:

Chicken breast fillets cooked with salt and pepper powder and sliced

Lettuce leaves

Tomato slices

Cucumber slices

Onion sliced

Mayonnaise

Honey mustard sauce

BBQ sauce

Tomato ketchup

Method:

• Cut the bun in half. 
• Place some lettuce leaves on the bottom half of bun, top with tomato slices, chicken pieces, cucumber slices, onion slices. 
• Drizzle some mayonnaise, honey mustard sauce, BBQ sauce and tomato ketchup. 
• Place the top half of the bun and enjoy your homemade Dutch Crunch chicken sandwiches :)

Sending this to Susan for Yeastspotting.