I love Tiger Bread! It's a loaf with a special coating on which you can get in the fresh bakery section of the major supermarkets here in UK. A distinctive aroma which reminds me of toasted Marmite which means it's yummy in my opinion! It has a lovely crackly crust which is usually on bloomer shaped bread. I've seen a supermarket call its Tiger Rolls, Tiger Paws! The baguettes are Tiger Tails of course! :D
One supermarket chain changed the name to Giraffe bread after a little girl wrote in saying it resembled giraffe more than tiger. She's not wrong!
Seeing this recipe posted on Jo's Blue Aga, I had to give it a try. I follow Jo on her Facebook page too :) As well as entering her monthly baking competitions!
With a cupboard stocked with strong flour (for bread baking) and a fresh packet of dried yeast I thought I was good to go. I assumed I had rice flour in but my luck was out. Rice flour is the magic topping ingredient here too! I had everything but that! Plain flour; self-raising; gluten-free flour; tapioca flour; potato starch, glutinous rice flour and cornflour! None of which I have seen suggested on the internet as a substitute for rice flour!
Determined to try Tiger Bread, I thought I'd grind my own. First I used the food processor attachment on my electric hand blender. Next, good ol' mortar and pestle. Finally, the coffee grinder which has never ground a single coffee bean in it's life of sitting on the kitchen shelf looking pretty! After sieving the flour through it resembled semolina you roll pizza dough out with. I still gave it a try but only made a quarter of the topping. I used this to spread on one of my loaves which was proving nicely after my battle trying grind rice grains! The other loaf I left plain in case the home-ground rice flour topping was a complete disaster!
The resulting bread was definitely not like the Tiger Bread you buy in shops. It lacked the toasty aroma and I struggle to get the nice crunchy crust on my home baked loaves. It also didn't crackle very much. Despite all that, it was a very nice tasting loaf, soft and springy. It's amazing what 'still within date' dried yeast can do compared with 'hiding in the cupboard too long' yeast can do!
Wow, this is a huge tiger bread here! Looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHoep you're having a lovely day.
Kristy
Thank you Kirsty!
DeleteIt was a lovely springy loaf - I'd highly recommend - unsure about topping though!
Hi Lynne....that is a lovely loaf...must try it one day :) hugs for you and Minh :) Your boy is getting more handsome by the days :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Elin :)
DeleteIt does make a lovely soft loaf :)
Minh is a cutie for sure :) XXxxX
Yummy this looks delish, i love this type of bread
ReplyDeleteThank you. So do I plasters bristol :)
DeleteLove the aroma it leaves in kitchen when you buy it from shops!
Dun be disheartened. :) You know what, this is on my to-do-list for a long time. I made it once, but was not very successful with the crust.
ReplyDeletehttp://everybodyeatswell.blogspot.be/2011/08/in-search-for-ultimate-tijgerbrood.html
Then I asked hubby to consult a friend in Belgium whose family owns a bakery. The friend replied and said they use special flour for tigerbread bought from baking suppliers, so he didn't have a secret recipe either. So they are all playing cheat! :p
I saw this recipe online, bookmarked it but yet to try it out. Waiting for summer to come so that bread dough rises faster. Try it and see if it's good.
http://goodcooks.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/the-dutch-crunch-tiger-bread-daring-bakers-march-challenge/
I will have a look at your links Miss B & thank you!
DeleteI have since bought rice flour and may try it again - although I think I need to add some yeast in the Tiger Topping to create the 'aroma' :)