Sourdough Dutch Crunch Bread (Tiger Bread)

This is a sourdough version of one of my favorite childhood breads–Dutch crunch rolls. They’re perfect for sandwiches and a real San Francisco treat.

Having grown up in San Francisco and having spent most of my life in the Bay Area I didn’t realize until much later that these rolls with the pretty crackly tops aren’t widely known outside of this neck of the woods. Around here we call them Dutch crunch bread, an homage to their place of origin, The Netherlands, where they’re called tijgerbrood or tiger bread for their distinctive pattern.

They’re commonly sold as rolls and they were my favorite sandwich option at the local deli’s bread lineup, often passing up on the sliced sourdough just to experience the pleasant crunch of the mildly sweet, crackly crust.

But as much as I liked them, Dutch crunch bread was absent from my life for many years–I moved out of the Bay Area briefly and promptly forgot about them until recently when the bread bin at my neighborhood market beckoned to me and I spotted them. Naturally, my first thought was to bake my own, converting them to sourdough of course.

Converting Dutch Crunch Bread to Sourdough

If you’re new to sourdough baking you’ll be pleased to know that making sourdough Dutch crunch bread is just as easy as preparing it with commercial yeast. The ingredients are mixed all at once followed by a few stretch and folds, overnight refrigeration, shape, second rise and bake. Apart from forming the rolls there’s very little hands on time and the process is split over two days. More importantly, after preparing two batches of these rolls and comparing them to a store-bought sample, my sourdough versions were easily tastier. I was surprised myself. And you can freeze them. They really are wonderful for sandwiches.

One thing to note is that you don’t completely eliminate the need for commercial yeast. While the bread dough is naturally leavened, the rice flour topping that is responsible for the crackly exterior does require commercial yeast.

Sourdough Dutch Crunch Notes

1. For the rice flour topping, tradition calls for using sesame oil but my recipe here omits it. Feel free to replace half of the oil amount with sesame oil.
2. The rice flour paste proportions I used were borrowed from Foodgeek’s video here and it works very well. You may not need all of the paste and my tip is to be very generous when applying it to the rolls for more pronounced cracks on the surface.
3. The liquid component of this recipe calls for milk and both dairy and nondairy options work well.
4. This recipe calls for bread roll sized balls at roughly 85 grams each but feel free to make larger sandwich rolls.
5. This dough can be made to suit your schedule. It doesn’t require the same amount of close observation as a regular sourdough loaf. I’ve split the process over two days but you can prepare this in one day if you wish or keep the dough refrigerated for two days and bake on the third day.
6. I’ve saved a video in my Instagram highlights showing how to shape the rolls. Please click here.