The Dutch Crunch (Tiger Bread), Daring Bakers March Challenge

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Baking, bread and rolls, daring bakers, daring kitchen, dutch crunch bread, milk bread, rice paste, soft white bread roll, Tiger bread

A special Thank YOU, I want to acknowledge all my blog buddies who have been veryhelpful to me on my journey to grow my blog. You made my day, and seriously, I was stuntly jumping happily all day yesterday and today to see you all besides me. Each of you have been very supportive with your likes or kind words and comments and I am grateful and humbled by your kindness, that the least I have to say, THANK YOU! Also, I’m extending same Thank YOU to WordPress.com team for selecting me at freshly Pressed, I have been honored with your promotion. Thanks to everyone else; non-bloggers and social media friends, you are appreciated too.THANKS from the bottom of my heart.

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!

I have to say this is my first time I make this kind of bread, or even know about it. But it was very delicious. The beautiful combination of crunchy sweet topping with very very soft inside, that the most signficant feature for the bread also I liked the color pattern on the top of it.

I made the same recipes given by Sara and Erica, and it turned out very successful bread. I made the soft white roll bread, I didn’t use all the 4 cups of flour, it took about 3 1\2 cup to make 6 large rolls of bread. I made the crunchy topping, and put a thick layer over the bread, didn’t let the bread to rest after the adding, I just pop it immediately in the oven.

I made some sandwiches from the bread, very light and healthy caprese sandwich with fresh mozzarella, tomato, arugula and spinach. On the side I made some baked potato chips.

Thanks Sara and Erica for this wonderful recipes, we all like it and enjoy making sandwiches out of it.

A little about Tiger Bread:

The bread is generally made with sesame oil and with a pattern baked into the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking.The paste dries and cracks during the baking process. The rice paste crust also gives the bread a distinctive flavour. It has a crusty exterior, but is soft inside. Typically, tiger bread is made as a white bread bloomer loaf or bread roll, but the technique can be applied to any shape of bread.

The name originated in the Netherlands, where it is known as tijgerbrood or tijgerbol where it has been sold at least since the early 1970s. In the USA, it is generally sold as “Dutch crunch”. Though recently, some stores began to sell it as “Dutch crust”. In the United States it is also sometimes known as dragonette bread.

The Dutch Crunch Bread (Tiger Bread)

Soft White Roll

Servings: Six sandwich rolls
This recipe approximates the quintessential white sandwich roll found throughout the Bay Area. The recipe is simple, quick, and addictive.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon (1 packet) active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water (105-110º F) (41-43°C) (No need to use a thermometer – it should feel between lukewarm and hot to the touch).
1 cup warm milk (105-110º F) (41-43°C) (We’ve tried both nonfat and 2%, with no noticeable difference)
1½ tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (plus additional olive or vegetable oil for greasing bowl during rising)
1½ teaspoons salt
Up to 4 cups all purpose flour

Directions:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes (The mixture should start to bubble or foam a bit and smell yeasty).
2. Add in vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook attachment or a wooden spoon, mix at medium speed until the dough comes together. (The photo to the right is with the first 2 cups of flour added).
3. Add remaining flour a quarter cup at time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, as shown in the photo below (For us, this usually required an additional 1½ to 2 cups of flour).
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
5. Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled (or more) in size

6. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal portions (if you’d like to make rolls) or 2 equal portions (if you’d like to make a loaf) (using a sharp knife or a dough scraper works well). Shape each into a ball or loaf and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (try not to handle the dough too much at this point).

7. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.
8. Coat the top of each roll or loaf with the topping as described above. While the original recipe recommends letting them stand for 20 minutes after applying the topping, I got better results by putting them directly into the oven.
9. Once you’ve applied the topping, bake in a preheated moderately hot 380ºF/190°C/gas mark 5 for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Let cool completely on a wire rack before eating.

Dutch Crunch Topping

Servings: This recipe should make sufficient topping for two 9×5 loaves (23cmx13cm) or 12 rolls. If you make only 6 rolls in the first soft white roll recipe, you can cut the topping recipe in half.

Note, however, that you should not prepare the topping until the bread you’ve selected to bake is almost finished rising (~15 minutes from baking).

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115º F) (41-46°C)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups rice flour (white or brown; NOT sweet or glutinous rice flour) (increase by 1 cup or more for home-made rice flour)

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a whisk; beat hard to combine. The consistency should be like stiff royal icing – spreadable, but not too runny. If you pull some up with your whisk, as shown below, it should drip off slowly. Add more water or rice flour as necessary. Let stand 15 minutes.
2. Coat the top of each loaf or roll with a thick layer of topping. We tried coating it with a brush but it worked better just to use fingers or a spoon and kind of spread it around. You should err on the side of applying too much topping – a thin layer will not crack properly.
3. Let stand, uncovered, for any additional time your recipe recommends. With the Soft White Roll, you can place the rolls directly into the oven after applying the topping. With the Brown Rice Bread, the loaves should stand for 20 minutes with the topping before baking.
4. When baking, place pans on a rack in the center of the oven and bake your bread as you ordinarily would. The Dutch Crunch topping should crack and turn a nice golden-brown color

Baked Potato French Fries:

Cut the potato into thin sticks, season with salt, black pepper, and paprika. Spray an oven sheet with some oilve oil then spray the potato sticks to coat. Put in 400 f preheated oven for 20 min.

Eggs on Hash

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breakfast recipes, brunch recipes, eggs recipes, hash, potato recipes, vegetable recipes

Hi guys! It was an awesome weather yesterday and today, days to enjoy the spring with the kids, a relief after a continuous raining for the whole last week and the week before, which is good but not in kids spring break though. Hope it will not cool too much especially in April, as many are expecting, like what happened last 2 years when it snowed and made damage to a lot of trees and plants.

Today’s the last day of the kids break. We tried to make it super fun. Fortunately, they had a pretty little camp with friends last week before the rain, but during the rainy day, there’s only one thing. Sticking Inside. So we enjoyed some indoor plans, they had the chance to join me in the kitchen and make some of their favourite recipes, or actually, some of their long list of recipes they wished to make a long time ago.

Yesterday, we went for fishing to Falls River Lake, it is a nice large lake with a lot of camping and picnic areas around it. They played, giggled and enjoyed the fishing.

Anyway! The kids were happy, and now ready to back to normal schedule.
For the recipe today, it’s a super easy dish for breakfast or brunch with multiple variations, you can add anything to it. The simpler version is also what’s known in the Middle East as M’FARAKET BATATA,(The potato and scrumbled eggs).

Don’t limit this quick dish to weeknight; it makes a fabulous weekend brunch offering as well.

2 large white potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1\4 cup yellow onion, diced small
1 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoon red, yellow or green bell pepper, diced small
1\4 cup tomato, seeded and diced small
3 large eggs

In a large heavy skillet, on medium heat, add the oil, onion, and potato, season with salt and pepper, cover and let cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Uncover and let cook until potatoes are golden, for 5 minutes more. Add the parsley, tomato and red-pepper, cook 2 minutes. Make wells in potato mixture. Crack eggs into each well, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until all eggs set, about 6 minutes.

Note
Use the back of a large spoon to hollow out wells for cooking the eggs. This helps them cook evenly and keeps portions separate for easy serving.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread with Earl – Grey Infused Glaze

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Baking, butter cookies, chocolate chip, cookies, cooking with tea, Dessert, Earl Grey, Earl Grey glaze, shortbread, tea glaze, tea time

There comes a time in every week ( or maybe in every day) when nothing is more satisfying than a snack of fresh-from-the-oven cookies, alongside a cold and creamy glass of milk or warming cup of tea.

When I’m talking shortbread cookies, I think of simplicity and little ingredients. This recipe of shortbread has no eggs in it, no baking powder, yet it calls for no cooling after mixing the dough. We don’t need to put everything from the pantry into a batch of cookies—a little restraint can go a long way toward helping us remember the pleasure of the simpler things.

But the absolute best part about shortbread? Butter! Shortbread cookies usually have a high percentage of fat and slightly less sugar than other cookies, leaving you with a not-too-sweet cookie that has a nice buttery flavor to it. The butter gives this classic cookie its just-so-slightly crumbly texture, which makes biting into a piece pure bliss. Butter also makes each bite melt a bit on your tongue as you munch on the cookies.

The glaze is new to me, the first time I used it or even see any recipe calling for it. Delicate Earl Grey tea infused glaze gives this unique flavor to the Cookies, calming and refreshing Earl Grey tea taste.

For optimum flavor, use unsalted butter to allow the flavors of butter, chocolate, orange and tea to stand out.

1 cup butter, unsalted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp grated orange peel
2 cups all-purpose flour
1\4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 f. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or leave them ungreased.

Using an electric mixer on low-speed, cream the Butter, orange peel and Sugar together in a bowl until combined, Stop the mixer to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Continuing on low-speed, gradually mix in the Flour, cornstarch and Salt. Scrape the bowl. When dough has formed, add in the chocolate chips, then complete the mixing by hand with a wooden spoon.

Roll dough into 1\4 inch thick rectangle on lightly floured board. Cut dough lengthwise into 4 rows and diagonally into 8 rows. Place shortbread 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until bottoms begin to brown. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan, cool completely on wire rack. Prepare Earl Grey-Infused Glaze. Drizzle over shortbread.

Earl Grey Infused Glaze:

makes 1\3 cup or enough to drizzle on the cookies

1\4 cup boiling water
3 bags Earl Grey tea
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened

pour boiling water over the tea bags, let steep 3-5 minutes. Remove tea bags.
In a small bowl, stir together powdered sugar and butter. Gradually stir in enough tea to make glaze thin enough to drizzle.

My All Favourite Pita Bread

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Baking, Dough, Flour, gridler pita, Kneading, making freah bread at home, Middle East, Olive oil, pita bread, storing pita bread, whole wheat pita, خبز الشوايه, خبز بيتا, خبز عربي, عمل الخبز العربي بالبيتو تخزين الخبز

Born and raised in the Middle East, found it much difficult in the beginning at least, 13 years ago - to adapt here in US without pita bread served in the breakfast, or even in every meal. That was before I got to know every place in the city I’m living in. Although, after we introduced to some local stores who sell the pita, it was not like what I used to eat. So why will be amazed to make pita at home when I can buy it? At how much better the home-made pita than the commercial pita?
The home-made is much better, the texture is chewy and very soft, more pliable, and don’t tear when you fill it unlike the ones you bought from stores. Very hard to stop at one, the smell of the fresh bread is totally different. Once you start making your own bread, you and your family will be spoiled. Besides, it’s really fun to make, even the kids will enjoy it. While my memories always taking me to those beautiful childhoodish moments, where I was my grandma’s helper when making the pita at home, she was the best in making very delicious pita bread, with the aromatic calming smell of baked fresh pita, you will know you are home…

The pita bread originated in the holy land, dating back to Biblical times. Arabic bread, Kmaj or pita are all names refer to a round hollow crust evenly baked flat bread found throughout the Middle East. An air pocket forms in the middle during baking, turning the bread into balls of dough skin, they are flattened only once cool.
Knives, forks, and spoons aren’t necessary in most of middle eastern meals as long as bread is present. A single layer of bread torn into bite-sized pieces serves as a scooper of dips and salads, meat wrapper, olive twister, and plate cleaner.
When cut across the diameter, it provides an instant pocket to fill with any type of food. Triangles of bread are often fried, toasted or baked and used to embellish main courses. They also serve as bottom layer of many fattat (dishes using bread as a main component in which meat or chickpeas are heaped in layers over bread, then topped with alternating layers of rice and garlic flavoured yogurt, sprinkled with layers of pine nuts parsley and mint). Dried bread finds its way into salads much as using croutons.

Pita bread is best when it baked traditional way, in a very hot stone oven, but making pita bread at home is very easy too, and you can meet a very good result with home oven. I usually bake my bread on ceramic tile, after heating the oven at 500 deg f for at least 20 min. The quarry tiles (be careful not to use the glazed surface) also is very good for baking bread, usually found at home improvement stores. Pizza stone works also can be used.
Kneading the bread for sufficient time is a very important step in making pita, and this will assure the forming of the pocket or the puff inside the bread.
 Here is some important hints for making the pita:
1. the basic plan in making pita is to get steam inside to puff up inside the bread before the bread bakes. This is why you need soft moist dough with little fat in it. Also this is why the bread is baked in a very high temperature at the bottom of the oven.
2. If you are using a cookie sheet to bake the bread, thick one may not allow the heat to penetrate quickly enough to the pita bread dough. This will cause the bread to cook before it has a chance to puff up, so use thin cookie sheets.
Remember the basic for better pockets: Moist dough, sufficient Kneading, resting, very hot oven temperatures.

Pita Bread (all white dough)

1 package of dry yeast, 2 1\2 teaspoon
1/2 cup warm water
2 teaspoon granulated sugar
4-4 1\2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon dry milk
1 1\2 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoon olive oil

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.

Combine 4 cups of flour, milk and salt in large bowl, or the stand mixer bowl.

Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour 1 tablespoon oil and yeast water in depression.

Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, using the hook attachment, stir to form a dough, add the rest of flour as kneaded, continue kneading until elastic, about 5-7 min.

Place dough on floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, add the remaining oil and knead some more to incorporate the oil into the dough. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded.

Coat large bowl with oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated. Allow to sit in a warm place for about 1\4 hour.

Once rested, pinch out 10-12 small pieces, depending on the size you like your pita. Place balls on floured surface. Let sit covered for 10 minutes.
Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Using a wooden cutting board let this process more easy. Each should be about 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick or more if you want it a little more thick.

place circles of dough on flat boards or a table, cover with dry cloth and let rise for 1 hour. Meanwhile, Preheat oven to 500 deg F. and make sure rack is at the very bottom of oven. Be sure to also preheat your baking sheet, if you are using a ceramic stone you will need to allow more time to heat.

Bake pita bread in batches for 2 minutes until the bread puffs up. Once puffed, flip them to the other side so the top side becomes the bottom on the sheet or stone, and the moisture surface is now exposed and rises more easily the other side, bake for 2 min more. Remove using a spatula and add other pita for baking. Cover and keep the pita in a kitchen cloth to keep it warm and soft.

Push down the puffed pita. Immediately place in storage bags. take your daily serving and store the rest in the freezer.

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

The same recipe as above, just add an equal amount of white and whole wheat flour, and may use more water than the white flour alone.

The Gridler Pita

The same recipe as the whole white, but cut in small balls and  baked in the gridler, which is more easy and quick especaillay with small amounts.

 

Storing Pita Bread

Pita bread will remain soft outside at room temperature in a bread box for 2 days, and up to a month in the freezer. Be sure to use freezer bags when storing in the freezer. I usually double the amount given in the recipe, and keep it in the freezer.
Don’t refrigerate it, it will dry out.