Dutch Tiger Bread or Crunch Bread

The bread itself is a straightforward white dough; yeast, flour, water, salt, left to rise for two to three hours before shaping. The rice flour paste is what makes this recipe specific: rice flour, dry yeast, water, sugar, sesame oil, and salt mixed together and left to rise separately, then brushed generously over the top of each roll before they go into the oven. As the bread bakes at high heat, the paste dries and contracts faster than the dough beneath it, which forces it to crack open into the distinctive pattern.

The crust is slightly sweet from the sugar in the paste and has a faint sesame depth that plain bread crusts do not. This recipe makes four rolls, the right amount to have fresh on baking day and still have one or two left for the next morning. Growing up, the crust was always eaten first, before the first bite of the sandwich; a habit that this bread makes inevitable.

One way to quickly see this ‘tiger effect’ is to try the rice flour paste on your favorite bread recipe. You know that bread recipe works and then the only change is the rice flour paste.

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Key Ingredients in This Recipe

You’ll find the complete list of ingredients and exact quantities in the recipe below.

FOR THE BREAD DOUGH

• Dry yeast
• Sugar
• All-purpose flour

FOR THE RICE FLOUR PASTE

• Dry yeast
• Sugar
• Sesame oil
• White rice flour

How to Make Dutch Tiger Bread or Crunch Bread

• Step 1 – Add yeast and sugar to water and allow yeast mixture to become bubbly.
• Step 2 – Add salt and flour and mix until you have a uniform mixture. Cover bowl and allow dough to rise at room temperature for about 2-3 hours.
• Step 3 – Make the rice flour paste by combining yeast, lukewarm water, sugar, sesame oil, salt and white rice flour in a bowl. Cover and allow this to rise as well at room temperature.
• Step 4 – Cut the dough in four and shape each into a roll and place rolls on baking sheet, lined with parchment paper and dusted with cornmeal.

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The longer you bake the bread the darker and crunchier the crust.

Give it a try once, it is really simple. If you like it, you’ll have an additional bread recipe in your arsenal that is not much extra work, but adds a different flavor and texture.