Daring Bakers' March 2012 Challenge - Dutch Crunch Bread/Giraffe Bread

The March 2012 Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Sara and Erica from Baking jDs. They live in San Francisco, Sarah grew up in the Bay Area.They chose Dutch Crunch Bread - a really great choice :)

This recipe is amazing. I never made a bread with a topping. The topping looks like giraffe's skin, It's so beautiful!!!!! I'm really impressed! Waouh!!!! In Dutch it's called Tijgerbrood or "tiger bread". Technically, it's not difficult. My daughter help me to make the bread and coat the top of the bread with the topping. The difficulty is just to find rice flour. I bought Bob's Red Mill White Rice. Be sure not to buy the sweet or glutinous variety.

I encourage everyone who wants to make bread by themselves to try this recipe. The dough rise in one hour. It's fantastic to see the dough rise :) It's fantastic to admire this giraffe's bread!!!! 

 

 I am a fan of bread: french baguette, fashion bread, biscuits, quick bread, corn bread....This recipe is amazing, I am sure to make another Dutch Crunch Bread for my friends or my family.

    This bread is perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For a picnic, it's really fresh and perfect to make sandwiches. 

       Sara and Erica wrote "For many folks from the Bay Area, a sandwich just isn't complete without Dutch Crunch bread." I understand completely what they feel.

Dutch Crunch Topping

Servings : This recipe should make sufficient topping for two 9x5 loaves (23cmX13cm) or 12 rolls. If you make only 6 rolls in the first soft white roll recipe, you can cut on the topping recipe in half. 

Do not prepare the topping until the bread is almost finished rising (~15mn from baking).

Ingredients :

• 2 Tbs (2 packets) (30 ml) (15 gr) active dry yeast
• 1 cup (240 ml) warm water (105-115°F) (41-46° C)
• 2 Tbs (30 ml) (30 gr/1 oz) sugar
• 2 Tbs (30 ml) vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp (21/2 ml) (3 gr) salt
• 11/2 cups (360 ml) (240 gr/81/2 oz) rice flour (white or brown; NOT sweet or glutinous rice flour)

Directions :

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a whisk; beat hard to combine. The consistency should be like stiff royal icing -spredeable, but not too runny. If you pull some up with your whisk, it should drip off solwly. 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 work better just to use fingers or a spoon and kind of spread it around. You should apply enough 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.

Soft White Roll

Servings: Six sandwich rolls

Ingredients :

• 1 Tbs (1 packet) (15 ml) (7 gr/1/4 oz) active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) warm water (105-110°F) (41-43°C) (No need to use a thermometer - it should feel between lukewarm and hot to the touch)
• 1 cup (240 ml) warm milk (105-110°F) (41-43°C) 
• 11/2 Tbs (221/2 ml)  (20 gr/2/3 oz) sugar
• 2 Tbs (30ml) vegetable oil (plus additional vegetable oil for greasing bowl during rising)
• 11/2 (71/2ml) (9 gr/1/3 oz) salt
• Up to 4 cups (960 ml) (600 gr/21 oz)) all purpose flour

Directions : 

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 wodden 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. (For me, this usually required an additional 11/2 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 parchement-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. I recommand letting them stand for 10 minutes after applying the topping.

Bake in a preheated moderately hot 380°F/190°C for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Let cool completely  on a wire rack before eating.

Comments

[marcellina]

WOW your bread has the most amazing crumb! It looks so soft and delicious! You must be so pleased!

[Jeanne]

Your bread looks gorgeous! I agree, this was one of the best breads I have ever made.

[Sara C.]

Beautiful results! I'm so glad you enjoyed the challenge. Thanks for joining us this month!

[Karoleenah]

Your tiger bread looks perfect and so tasty! :) I should try it too as I made only bread rolls for this challenge.

[Bourbonnatrix]

bravo! votre pain à l'air si moelleux et délicieux, et la sandwich tellement fraiche! ça donne faim!