Daring Bakers - Dutch Crunch Bread aka Tijgerbrood

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Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

Since the challah baking had me on a roll, I decided to tackle this challenge from the Daring Kitchen as well :o)  Dutch Crunch Bread, known as Tijgerbrood (or Tiger Bread), has been a very popular bread type around here for the past few years. And I have to admit that I always buy this type of bread as I like its crunchy crust and I find it stays fresh longer than the other breads available in the grocery stores.  I thought it was a special type of bread, but thanks to this challenge I discovered that using this topping can make any bread special.

Because the challenge also consisted of making a sandwich, I choose the Soft White Rolls recipe supplied on the Dutch Crunch Challenge Sheet.  Next time I will double the ingredients though, because I was left with too much topping for the amount of dough, this recipe yielded. I am sure than I could have topped a dozen rolls. 

The rolls right out of the oven looked fabulous and I found it hard to resist the urge to sink my teeth into this crunchy goodness.  Nevertheless I waited because I wanted to use these tijgerbroodjes for a tuna burger.

And this was the final result.

The recipe for the tuna burger was taken from Burgers Faits Maison from Sandra Mahut, which I tweaked slightly.

Ingredients (for 2 burgers)

* 1  large can of tuna in brine (net weight 220g)

* 1 garlic clove, diced

* 1 small onion, diced

* 1 cm of fresh ginger, chopped 

* 1 Tbsp of chiseled coriander leaves

* 1 Tbsp of sesame oil

* 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds

Mix all the ingredients of the list. Form 2 balls and flatten them in not too thick patties. Fry them slowly in a hot skillet with sesame oil. When they are golden brown, sprinkle them with sesame seeds.

Dared to bake Dutch Crunch Bread. Challenge completed !

Daring Bakers - Honey & Chocolate Chip Challah

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May 2012’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

I never made bread before, except in a breadmaking machine, which doesn't really count towards making your own bread.  But it is something I have been longing to try for a while.  My grandfather used to make his own bread and I remember how as a little girl, he would give me a piece of dough to play with and shape as I wanted.  Then it ended up under the cloth with the two loaves and although I was told not to touch them while they rose, I couldn't help but take a peak every now and then.  Even to this day, I never cease to be amazed by the miracle of rising dough.

For this challah, I opted for one of the recipes mentioned on the Daring Bakers Challenge Sheet, the Honey White Challah taken from Tammy's Recipes.  Because I planned to use it as a breakfast bread, I added half a cup of chocolate chips to her recipe and I also halved all her quantities as we don't eat enough bread around here to make two loaves.

Braiding the bread turned out being trickier than expected. My problem was actually to shape the 6 different strand rather than the braiding itself.  So the braids ended up too short and thick, and as a result the challah looked a bit ... well, let's call it rustic :o)

 Tastewise, it is really taste although, being the sweettooth that I am, I might increase the honey for my next attempt as I would have appreciated the extra sweetness.

Dared to bake Challah. Challenge completed !