Grrr! Tiger Bread!

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The bread says, "I am delicious. Crunchy on top and soft inside." 

March's Daring Baker's Challenge was fun, but was over-shadowed by my preparing for my thesis defence and freaking out about it possibly being cancelled by a faculty strike. The defence went ahead last Friday and after three hours of me courting laryngitis, my committee members shook my hand and called me "doctor". Yay! Hell if I can remember much about baking this bread, though. I recall being initially disappointed that we weren't being called upon to make a persnickity dessert. Oh well, maybe next month.

This was my first and only batch and it all went fairly smoothly. You can get the recipe here. I basically followed it as is, though I think I used sesame oil in the topping. I barely needed half of the topping, so would cut the topping recipe in the future. I was jazzed about shaping rolls for the first time and was pleased with how they turned out. I actually made a loaf as well, and that went much more quickly than the rolls. There's something about slices of fresh bread hot out of the oven that is really irresistible, even for a non-bread-devotee like myself. 

Looks like icing, but it's yeasty topping

I do wish that I'd gotten more cracking on top. I thought when I was icing the rolls with the yeast topping that I was really layering it on thick, but I probably could have added more.

The bread was good, but I likely won't make this recipe again. Crispy tops just aren't my thing, delicious as they were. I WILL, however, try making soft rolls again at some point because shaping them was fun. 

The challenged asked us to make a sandwich with our tiger rolls, and I admit to failing in the creativity department there. I just stuck some burgers in them because they seemed such a perfect burger shape. 

I DID, however, find a really interesting secret ingredient for burgers. Wanna know what it is? You won't believe it. I didn't believe it, but it was too outrageous for me NOT to try. It makes the burgers extra juicy, even if you're using lean beef. You'll never guess that the answer is. . .

Time to get a flip-top head.

. . . Water. 

Literally. 

Water. 

Yes, I'm asking you to water down your beef. And not just a LITTLE water, I'm talking 1/4 to 1/2 cup per pound. I was chicken so I stayed on the low-ish end of that, but I'll increase the amount next time because it worked really nicely. I've quite happily added a fair amount of soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce in the past, but not quite 1/4 cup per half pound. 

Boyfriend-hand wasn't supposed to be in the shot.

"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!"