Tag Archives: Giraffe Bread

Dutch Crunch Rolls Do The Two-Step

In Holland they call it tijgerbrood (Tiger bread) or tijgerbol (Tiger roll).  But a British chain store that sells the popular bread officially changed the name of its bread to Giraffe Bread. They have a point. Does this pattern look more like giraffe or a tiger to you?

Dutch Crunch Rolls

Tiger or Giraffe?

If you are American, and unless you live in the San Francisco area, you may never have seen the two-layer roll that is also known as Dutch Crunch Rolls.  Besides being popular in Europe, (I discovered this Dutch recipe on a Welsh cooking site), the City by the Bay loves them, too. For some reason, San Francisco has adopted the Tiger Bread as sandwich rolls, but they are keeping it to themselves–it has not spread to other parts of the country.

What accounts for the soft inside and the crunchy surface? Believe me, if it was some complicated, only-for-chefs secret, I would not be making Dutch Crunch Rolls.  But the “secret” is an easy two-step process.  First you make rolls similar to any yeast dinner roll you might make.  Let the rolls rise, then make a yeast batter out of rice flour and smear it on the raised rolls. Here is a picture of two rolls with spoonfuls of batter on top, and two with the batter smeared all over the roll.

Rice flour batter on rolls

Spreading rice flour batter on top of raised rolls

If you are not accustomed to making yeast rolls, please don’t be afraid to try Dutch Crunch Rolls.  Just don’t get the warm milk or water TOO warm, but do be sure it is warm enough to make the yeast happy.  The trickiest part of baking yeast bread is getting the kneading right.  It usually takes longer than you think it is going to take, but many cooks tell me that they look forward to the opportunity to get rids of agressions–taking it out on the dough.  Unlike biscuits, where the problems arise (or rather don’t rise) when you mix too much, bread dough needs a lot of massaging.  Here’s a You-Tube video if you need a primer.

So let’s show San Francisco and northern Europe that WE can make Tiger/Giraffe/Dutch Crunch Rolls, too! (Even though I cannot claim Dutch Crunch Rolls as a traditional Dutch recipe that would have been made by my ancestor, since no one seems to be able to trace it back further than the 1960s or 1970s.)

Dutch Rolls

Serves 6-12
Prep time 3 hours, 30 minutes
Cook time 15 minutes
Total time 3 hours, 45 minutes
Allergy Milk, Wheat
Meal type Bread
Misc Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
Region European
Website Bright Eyed Baker
Soft on the inside, with a surprising crunchy surface, these rolls are popular in northern Europe and the British Isles.

Ingredients

Soft white rolls

  • 1 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon butter
  • 3 1/2-4 cups white flour
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (If you use packets--they are slightly less than 1 T. Save the partial packet for toopping.)
  • 1 tablespoon salt (Use less if you don't want a very salty bread.)
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Crunch Topping

  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (If you use packets--they are slightly less than 1 T. Be sure to measure)
  • 1/2 cup lukewarm water
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4-1 cups rice flour (Either white rice flour or brown rice flour will work.)

Directions

Soft white rolls
1. Put butter in milk and warm in microwave for one minute, or on stove top until milk is warm and butter has melted. Stir together and set aside to cool to lukewarm
2. In large bowl, whisk 3 1/2 Cups of flour, 1 T. yeast, sugar and salt. Add the lukewarm milk and butter and fold in with spatula until everything is combined in a somewhat sticky dough. If it is very sticky, add a bit more flour. Otherwise, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead incorporating the remaining 1/2 cup flour only if needed, until the dough is elastic, tacky, and smooth.
3. Shape the dough into a ball with a smooth top surface and place in a greased bowl about twice the size of the dough. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled in size (about two hours.)
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, punch down the dough and divide it into 6 (or 8 or more)* balls. Tuck outer edge together underneath and pinch them together. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet(s), space at least one inch apart. Cover with towel or plastic wrap and leave to rise for 30-45 minutes, until puffy.
Soft white rolls and Dutch Crunch Topping
5. While rolls are rising on baking sheet, preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Crunch Topping
6. Combine the 2nd Tablespoon of yeast with the warm water, sugar, vegetable oil, salt and 3/4 cup rice flour for the topping. Beat together well to form a smooth, thick batter that drips off your whisk or spoon in thick clumps. Add another 1/4 cup of rice flour if needed to achieve the desired consistency. Let sit for 15 minutes.
Crunch topping
7. Spoon the topping in equal amounts over the fully risen rolls. Scoop up any batter that falls on the pan and patch any spots that are not covered. Use all the mixture.
Baking Dutch Crunch Rolls
8. Bake the rolls in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until golden-brown on top. Serve warm.

Note

* Although the original recipe for Dutch Rolls calls for making six rolls--they would be the size of small loaves. I made eight and the size is like a large hamburger bun. There is nothing wrong with making twelve, which would be a more normal size dinner roll.

Be sure to spread the topping with the back of a spoon so as to cover the entire Dutch Roll for the pretty crackled finish.

Although the recipe calls for one tablespoon, I used no salt in the soft roll and the taste was fine. I believe I will use one teaspoon in the future.

I used brown rice flour instead of the traditional white rice flour and could not see any bad effect in the crunchy covering on the Dutch Rolls.