Tiger Rolls (aka Dutch Crunch Rolls)

The March Baker’s Challenge was hosted by  Sara and Erica from Baking JDs. Since they are both from San Fransisco, they chose a popular sandwich bread called “Tiger” bread. It is also commonly known as Dutch crunch bread. In the Netherlands, where it supposedly  originated, it is called  tijgerbrood or tijgerbol (translation: tiger roll). Per wikipedia, “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. 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.”

Learn more about the history of Dutch Crunch bread, particularly in the Bay Area, here, here, and here.

 Whatever you want to call it, it is a very delicious soft white bread with a distinct crunchy and flavorful topping. The topping is made with yeast (for flavor) and rice flour (for crunch). It bakes up with a beautiful, crackly pattern on the top that you will just love to look at (then eat!). I have made tiger rolls a few times this year but was interested when fellow DB’s didn’t have access to rice flour and made their own. Since I had used up the last of my rice flour on the first batch, I was eager to go this route on my second go. It was  incredibly easy with the aid of my coffee grinder. I first cleaned it out by putting in 1/2 slice of bread and grinding it. This will pick up any coffee bits still left in the chamber. Then I tossed in the white rice and let it grind for about 30 seconds. Then, proceed with the recipe as usual. Conclusion? I loved it. It thought it was so much “crunchier” than using the extremely fine milled store-bought rice flour. This will definitely be the way I go from now on.

The recipe for the topping is the one provided by Sara and Erica.  The bread recipe is adapted from Bake! by Nick Malgieri  (such a great book), which I thought provided a softer roll.I also added a touch of potato flakes for moistness. These make excellent buns for burgers and are best eaten within one day of baking (they freeze great as well)

Tip:  Allow sufficient time for both risings. If you hurry now, your bread will be tough and dry after baking.

 Since I love baking bread, all I can say is have fun. Bake On!

DUTCH CRUNCH TOPPING

Please note that you should not make the topping until the bread is almost done with its final rising.

* if using homemade rice flour you will need to adjust the quantity and add more until you get a paste- like consistency.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (2 packets) (30 ml) (15 gm/½ oz) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) warm water (105-115º F) (41-46°C)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (30 gm/1 oz) sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (3 gm) salt
1½ cups (360 ml) (240 gm/8½ oz) rice flour (white or brown; NOT sweet or glutinous rice flour) (increase by 1 cup or more for home-made rice flour)

Directions:

1. 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, as shown below, it should drip off slowly. Add more water or rice flour as necessary. Let stand 15 minutes.

Perfect White Bread

Makes two 9 x5 x5 inch loaves or six large  rolls and one loaf or 12  large rolls. The weights given below are based on 1 cup flour being 4.25 oz

6 1/2 Cups  (26 oz) bread flour (I never have bread flour so I also put in 3 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten)
3 Tablespoons potato flakes
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 3/4  Cups (14 oz) milk, scalded
1 Cup (8 oz) warm water, about 100 – 110F (no hotter)
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 1/4 oz) active dry yeast

Stir the flour, sugar and salt together; set aside

Stir the butter into the hot milk and set aside to cool to room temperature.

about 20 minutes later….

Place the water and yeast into the bowl of your electric mixer. Give it a good whisk to make sure the yeast is dissolved; let proof for a few minutes.  Pour in the cooled milk and butter mixture.

Using a large rubber spatula, stir in half of the flour mixture. Stir the in the balance in 3-4 additions, until there is no longer any unmoistened flour.

Place onto your mixer, and using the dough hook, beat on medium for 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Turn the mixer on again and beat for another 2 minutes.

Get out a large bowl and lightly oil it (I spray mine with PAM). Place the dough into the bowl and turn it over so that now the top is also oiled. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until it has doubled in bulk. At a room temperature of 75F, it should take 1 hour. My house is always cooler than that so it takes about 1 1/2 hours. Use your eyes, not the clock for best results.

Invert the dough and turn it over, pressing to deflate the dough. Place it back into the oiled bowl and cover again for a second rise, again , about 1 hour.

After the second rise, turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and divide in half. You are now ready to shape your bread.

If making  two loaves of bread, gently pull and stretch each piece into a rough 8-9 inch square. Tightly roll it up toward you jelly roll style,pinching the edges together to seal when you get to the end. Place seam side down into a greased loaf pan and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

If making rolls, divide into 6 (if using half batch) or 12 equal pieces. Round each piece of dough by placing it under your cupped palm and firmly rotating your cupped palm in a small clockwise motion. Arrange the rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Make the crunch topping. After the topping has rested, stir it down and evenly spread it on the rolls/bread with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Get it all around but don’t overload it or it will puddle underneath. Continue to let rise until ready to place in the oven.

For loaves:
Bake for 45 minutes or an internal temperature of 200F.

For rolls:
Bake until firm and golden, about 20 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack.

This is the first batch using store bought rice flour in the topping:

This is the second batch using homemade rice flour:

The second part of the challenge was to create a one of a kind sandwich, which I forgot to do. But, I would like to think that everything I make is one of a kind (ha!)

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