crackle buns

I don't know what I enjoyed more this month, the challenge, or the fact that I had an entire week off to play around with it. Love March break!

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 started out by making simple soft white buns using the recipe provided in the challenge, with the crackle on top. They turned out beautiful! Soft and fluffy inside with a crunchy exterior.

Soft White Roll
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
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

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).

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.

Add remaining flour a quarter cup at time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. For me, this usually required an additional 1 1/4 cups of flour, tops.

Knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. 


Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled (or more) in size.

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).

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.

Dutch Crunch Topping
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups rice flour

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 it should drip off slowly. Add more water or rice flour as necessary. Let stand 15 minutes.

Using your fingers or a spoon, coat the top of each roll with a thick layer of topping. You should err on the side of applying too much topping – a thin layer will not crack properly.

Once you’ve applied the topping, bake in a preheated moderately hot 380ºF for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. The Dutch Cruch topping should crack and turn a nice golden-brown color. Let cool completely on a wire rack before eating. 

Our Daring Baker hostesses explained that Dutch Crunch bread is also called crackle, tiger or giraffe bread in some parts of the world. To me, the buns looked more like turtle shells than tigers or giraffe, and I have particular thing for turtles... so I did not make one of a kind sandwiches with it, but I did make one of a kind buns...

A little creative shaping, a little food coloring, food marker... and you've got turtle buns!