Tiger bread (Dutch: Tijgerbrood), also known as Dutch crunch and under various brand names, is a bread of Dutch origin that has a mottled crust.

Tiger bread
Tiger bread rolls
TypeBread
Place of originNetherlands
Main ingredientsbread, Rice paste

Crust edit

The bread is generally made with a pattern baked onto the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking.[1][2][3] The rice paste that imparts the bread's characteristic flavour dries and cracks during the baking process. The bread itself 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.

Other names edit

The name originated in the Netherlands, where it is known as tijgerbrood[4] or tijgerbol (tiger bun), and where it has been sold at least since the early 1970s.[citation needed] The US supermarket chain Wegmans sells it as "Marco Polo" bread.[5] In the San Francisco Bay Area it is called Dutch Crunch.[6]

 
A tiger bread loaf

In January 2012, the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's announced that it would market the product under the name "giraffe bread", after a three-year-old girl's parents wrote to the company to suggest it.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ Stamm, Mitch (1 June 2009). "Snap, crackle, crunch bread". Modern-baking.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Tiger bread renamed giraffe bread by Sainsbury's". BBC News. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Tiger Bread". BBC Good Food. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  4. ^ Ayto, John (2012). The diner's dictionary : word origins of food & drink (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191744433.
  5. ^ "Marco Polo Bread - Wegmans". Archived from the original on 3 July 2018.
  6. ^ Kauffman, Jonathan (11 November 2010). "Dutch Crunch: According to Nick Malgieri, a San Francisco Treat". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on 28 December 2018.