I’m having another go at Tiger Bread, after more research I discovered that it’s actually known in America as Dutch Crunch and there are more recipes available!  Yay!  So thanks to the ‘Bakingsheet‘ blog for the recipe, which I have very slightly altered by adding a dash (say half a tsp or so) of toasted sesame oil.

So, I prepared my usual white loaf and left it for 25 mins to prove and made up the paste except I forgot to wait 15 minutes for the paste to expand!  I spread the paste on quite thickly and left it to prove until it had doubled to its original size and stuck it in the oven.  It came came out quite well, its not quite the same as the Tiger Bread taste – doesn’t seem as buttery so maybe I will experiment a bit with butter instead of oil and slightly more sugar maybe as it didn’t seem to be as sweet either.  The loaf came out quite heavy but I’ve since Googled it and I think I have narrowed the problem down to my Kenwood, from the posts I read on various forums I need to add more water when using dough hooks on a Kenwood so we will see when I make another loaf on Thursday.

White Loaf
650g/1lb 5oz Strong White Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
1 x 7 g sachet Easy Bake Yeast
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil – I used Olive as we don’t have veg oil, you could use melted butter.
400ml/14fl oz Warm Water – I actually used 200ml warm milk & 200ml water

Place the flour, salt and sugar in a warm bowl and stir in the Easy Bake Yeast.
Mix to a soft dough with the oil and water.
Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. (5 minutes if using dough hooks in a foo processor)
Shape as desired and put into an appropriate greased tin.
Leave to prove (rise) slowly until double in size – see paste recipe below
Place in an oven preheated to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7 and immediately turn the heat down to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and turn on to a wire tray. When cooked the loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Tiger Paste/Dutch Crunch Topping

1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105-110F)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup white rice flour (not sweet rice flour)

I was looking for some bread inspiration and stumbled across the Allinson recipe site www.bakingmad.com.  I found myself browsing the world breads section, simply because I love bread with flavours, anyway I found Buttermilk Stuten, its apparently a German (could also be Polish, I cant quite get much from a Google search) bread and it reminds me of the semi-sweet bread that you get in an Iced or a Belgian Bun.  It is described as a breakfast bread and I can certainly see why, I really like it and thought I might make some icing for the top and Chris suggested I add cinnamon, so now it is my very own cinnamon bread – would go lovely with a nice fresh macciatio or cappuccino (which I’m very lucky to be able to have on hand, thanks to our fantastic coffee machine!  Next time I make it, I might add some sultanas, although it is delicious without.

Buttermilk Stuten

400 g (14 oz or 2 ½ cups) Allinson Strong White Bread Flour - I used Very Strong as it was all I had in.
75 g (3 oz or ½ cup Honey
1 tbsp Sea Salt
100 g (4 oz or ¾ cup) Butter, Melted
1 Egg
2 Sachets Allinson Easy Bake Yeast
225 ml (8 floz or 1 cup) Water (my butter was still warm so I just used cold water and added the butter to the water before mixing)

Place all the ingredients into a mixer with a dough hook attached.

Mix to a soft dough (I did it on no.2 with my Kenwood) and knead for 5 minutes.

Split the dough in to 3 and roll in to sausages then make a plait.

Place onto a greased baking sheet, cut slats across the top and leave to prove until double in size, this takes about an hour.

Bake at 190°C/370°F/Gas Mark 5 for 30 minutes.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Cinnamon Icing

1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp milk

Combine the icing sugar, cinnamon and milk to make the icing, you can add the milk slowly until you reach your preferred consistency, I like mine quite thick so add more milk if you want it thinner.

Drizzle over the cooled bread and leave to set – if you can wait that is!

Slice and enjoy with a lovely cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate.