Confession #112: I love a Good Challenge... Dutch Crunch Rolls aka Tiger Bread

Usually, I decide to bake something just because it sounds good to me at the moment. If you know me well enough, you'll know that anything with chocolate typically falls in that category. Plus, there's the constant stream of other random ingredient combinations I come up with that I convince myself are going to be the next best thing. But occasionally, I make something more for the sake of the process than anything else. Tell me that macarons are devilishly tricky to make, or that caramel sauce can't be made without cream, and I'll definitely be itching to take on the challenge just so I can feel super-victorious  if when I get it right.

The first time I heard about Dutch Crunch Bread - or Tiger Bread, as it's otherwise known, I seriously thought it was The. Coolest. Thing. Ever. I had no idea what it tasted like, and I don't think I really cared. It just looked awesome, and I was dead-set on making it. Except, I was just the teensiest bit worried that the topping wouldn't turn out right, and it wouldn't look like tiger bread at all. It happens...

But then I pulled these rolls out of the oven, and I felt like some sort of baking genius, even though these are incredibly easy to make and the topping takes all of 5 seconds to whip together. From what I've learned, the trick is just to make sure you make the topping thick enough, and then give the rolls a nice thick coating. Baking isn't impossible, you just need to know all the tricks. :) Do everything right and you end up with super-soft rolls that have a crispy, tiger-like crust. Pretty awesome, don't you think?

Before I leave you with the recipe, can we please agree on something? This should never have been named Tiger Bread.  Last time I checked, tigers have stripes... But apparently we need a super-cute 3-year old girl to tell us this. Go figure.

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Dutch Crunch Rolls

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Dutch-Crunch Topping puts a unique twist on the classic Soft White Dinner Rolls, giving them a crispy crust with a fun giraffe-like appearance.

• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 6 jumbo rolls

Ingredients

Soft White Rolls

• 1 ½ cups milk
• 1 ½ tablespoons butter
• 3 ½ - 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt

Dutch Crunch Topping

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• ½ cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ - 1 cup rice flour*

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Instructions

1. Combine the milk and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for about 1 minute, until the milk is warm and the butter has melted. Stir together, and set aside to cool until lukewarm.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together 3 ½ cups flour with yeast, sugar and salt. Add the lukewarm milk and butter mixture and fold in with a 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 well-floured surface and knead, incorporating the remaining ½ cup flour only as 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 roughly double its size. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled in size (for me this took about 2 hours).
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Punch down the dough and divide it into 6 equal pieces**. Shape each piece into a ball by tucking the outer edges underneath and pinching them together as you would a twist-tie. Place the balls of dough pinch-side down on the prepared baking sheet, spaced apart from each other. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for another 30-45 minutes, until puffy.
5. Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare the dutch crunch topping by combining the yeast, warm water, sugar, vegetable oil, salt, and ¾ cup rice flour in a medium bowl. Beat together well to form a smooth, thick "batter" that drips off your whisk in thick clumps. Add up to another ¼ cup rice flour if needed to achieve the desired consistancy. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.
6. Spoon the topping in equal amounts over the fully risen rolls. As you do so, it will start rolling over the sides of the rolls. Once you've used it all up (it will seem like a lot, but use it all), scoop up any excess topping that has dripped onto the baking sheet and use it to cover any areas of the rolls left exposed.
7. Bake the rolls in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until golden-brown on top. Cool briefly before serving.

Notes

*I used white rice flour in this recipe, but brown rice flour should work as well. However, be sure to NOT use sweet or glutinous rice flour.

**The 6 rolls I made with this recipe turned out very large - definitely not individually-sized, unless perhaps you're making a large sandwich. Feel free to make the rolls smaller if you'd like (and make more).

White Rolls adapted from Nigella Lawson via The New York Times

Dutch Crunch Topping from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum
via The Daring Kitchen