Crunchy Tiger Bread is a bread with a crust of rice flour paste that cracks during baking and will look like a tiger print. In Holland, we call this a tiger bread. The darker you bake the bread the crunchier the crust.
This bread is delicious and when I was young, it was a treat when my mother bought these tiger buns. Often, I ate the crust, before I took my first bite of the sandwich.
The tiger print is created by a rice flour paste that is brushed on the top of your bread, just before you slide it in the oven. You see it mostly on white bread, but it tastes equally good on whole wheat or whole grain. Do know that the paste is slightly sweet? It’s because it is a mix of rice flour and sugar.
One way to test this tiger effect is to try the coating on your favorite bread recipe. You know that bread recipe works and then the only change is the rice flour paste.
One of my favorite bread cookbook, is ‘The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I used the master recipe from this book as my starting point. The rice paste is the crunchy part of the bread, the treat to create the Crunchy Tiger Bread.
How to make the paste?
Combine yeast, sugar, oil, salt and white rice flour, allow it to rise a little and then brush it on top of the unbaked bread. I used olive oil, but I am sure any other oil will do as well. You’ll find 1 tablespoon of sugar in the mix, but if you want the crunch to be sweeter, use 1.5-2 tablespoons.
Bake the bread as you’re used to do and you’ll see it comes out like a tiger print. This coating may be a nice alternative for a muffin, just saying; you’ll have a tiger muffin. I have not tried this, it just comes to mind.
Give it a try once, it is really simple. It you like it, you’ll have an additional bread recipe in your arsenal that is not much work, but adds a different flavor and texture.
Crunchy Tiger Bread
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups lukewarm water
- 1/2 tablespoon dry yeast
- 1 pinch sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon salt
- 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Rice Flour Paste
- 1 tablespoon dry yeast
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup white rice flour
Instructions
- Add yeast and sugar to water and allow yeast mixture to become bubbly.
- 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.
- Mix the ingredients for the crunchy crust in a bowl, cover the bowl and allow this to rise as well at room temperature.
- Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and dust with corn meal.
- Cut the dough in half and shape each half into a round loaf and place loaves on parchment paper.
- Brush the rice flour paste on top of each loaf, spread it to completely coat the entire loaf.
- Bake loaf for approx. 20 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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