Tijgerbrood, tiger bread or Dutch crunch
Form: Short French stick of bread or thin stretched bread
Country of origin: The Netherlands
What distinguishes it from other methods of bread making: The dough is coated with a rice flour paste, which makes it crackle when baked, which gives a a mottled “tigery” look to the crust
Category of bread: (3) The contrast between the crackled crust and the soft inside, which contains milk, puts tijgerbrood into the category of crispy, crusty breads that are hard to resist
Particularity: Tijgerbrood is popular in the San Francisco Bay under the name Dutch crunch
Ingredients: Dough: Wheat flour; yeast or leaven; milk; sugar; salt and warm water. Paste: rice flour; oil; sugar; salt; yeast; warm water
The Netherlands
The inventor of tijgerbrood is a Dutch bread baker who was obviously preoccupied with play on the contrast between the flavor and softness of the inside and the dramatic contrast of the crispiness of the crust. He started selling this bread in the Netherlands in the 1990s, and in Great Britain and Ireland at the beginning of the 21st century. The “tiger bread” quickly gained fans far from its homeland. It’s hard to resist once you’ve tasted it.
Today, it is found in the San Francisco Bay under the name “Dutch crunch bread,” where it is used in abundance for delicious sandwiches. It was the Frenchman Isadora Boudin who opened the first bead bakery in San Francisco in 1849, which was a huge sensation. Bread bakeries started popping up everywhere and the famous San Francisco sourdough bread, i.e. pain with leavening, became famous all over the country.
But Dutch crunch bread is above all Dutch, and has this particularity of literally being coated with rice paste. This is perhaps a unique example. We therefore have make tijgerbrood or tiger bread in two steps. The dough is first made with flour, milk, warm water, yeast or leaven, oil and salt. It is then covered with a tea towel or plastic film and left to rise for a good hour. During this time, the distinctive “coating” or “glaze” is prepared with rice flour, warm water, yeast, sugar, oil and salt. When the bread rolls have risen enough, they are coated with the rice paste and then popped into the oven. Some bread lovers spread the word that it is the one bread that absolutely must be tasted before leaving this earth.