#BAKING DUTCH CRUNCH BREAD SKIN#

Do check the consistency of the paste given in the picture below. It should be thick but spreadable and not runny. What you are looking for is a consistency similar to that of a glue. If it’s too thick, add water if too runny, add flour. Depending on the rice flour, you may need to adjust the consistency of the paste. Take the ingredients listed under paste as a guidance.Be supremely gentle while spreading the paste as we do not want to deflate the puffy and delicate bun and thereby ending up with a dense bread.I preferred this technique on a bun rather than a loaf as it was easier to spread and it held the structure well.

Just imagine a crispy, crunchy bite giving way to a soft, pillowy goodness!

Use an enriched dough (I have used butter + cream) while baking these buns as the contrast is absolutely to die for.

However, the crackles were more pronounced with the gorgeous giraffe pattern on a white bun as it expanded more with better volume due to higher presence of gluten. Though it tasted crunchy and delicious, it just didn’t have that beautiful pattern I was looking for.

I have tried this technique on a whole wheat as well as on a multigrain bun.

So, sharing here with you some of the lessons I learnt while baking these buns: I made these buns several times, every time learning something new until I had the one, I was most satisfied with. The trickier part however is the paste part. The bun recipe itself is fairly simple one, it’s the usual white bun, soft and fluffy.

#BAKING DUTCH CRUNCH BREAD SKIN#

The satisfying crunch makes it such a drool worthy bread, you will be tempted to pick off the skin and relish the crunch on its own, just as my 8-year-old did 🙂 In my opinion, it’s a perfect carrier for a burger or as I did with dabeli – to add another layer of crunch besides masala peanuts and pomegranates seeds. As rice flour lacks gluten, during the second proofing when the bread/buns rises, the paste stretches and then on baking, its crisps and crackles. So, what is this bread? Its basically a soft white bread covered with a paste of rice flour, oil, sugar and yeast which gives it a unique flavour, taste and that incredible pattern. Writing the name for this recipe was a challenge cause its known with so many different names – dutch crunch bread due to its origin in Netherlands, tijgerbrood ( if sold as a loaf) or tiigerbolletjes (if sold as buns), tiger buns though later corrected as giraffe buns as the spots on the bread resemble the skin pattern found on a giraffe than on a tiger after it was pointed out by a 3 year old girl!!

Baking dutch crunch bread