BREAD

The Tiger

Simon Munn

• 2 min read

The Mecca of all bread must be the tiger bread. I could more than easily devour a loaf freshly baked and the supermarkets do a great job at tempting me all the time. (Except when they call it giraffe bread, which it does look more like)

Tiger Bread
Tiger Bread

No, tiger bread is called tiger bread because lion bread wouldn’t sound as cool. As far as I’m concerned, tiger bread was always the ultimate goal in my doughy endeavours. After my more recent efforts, I thought I was ready to take it on.

Ingredients
500g Strong Flour (using Leckford Estate again)
7g Dry Active Yeast
3tbs Sesame Seed Oil
1tsp Salt
300ml Tepid Water

And for the topping
100g Rice Flour
1/2tsp Yeast
1tsp Salt
1/2tsp Sugar
150ml Tepid Water

Method
I made the dough like my previous white, mixing the ingredients with the water excluding the salt and some water. Leaving the dough for 30min then adding remaining water and salt.

A note about the water. To make ‘tepid’ water, I’m using one third boiling water and two thirds tap water.

The mix was made in the mixer and I left it with the dough hook for a good 10/12mins
Leaving the dough rise for an hour. I was then planning to leave in the fridge for 6hrs but it rose way too much and had only an hour in the fridge before it hit the roof!
The dough was then knocked down and shaped. I need to practice at this far more.
Before the final rise, the dough was then covered in the topping using a brush. The idea is that when its baking, the strong flour rises and stretches and the rice flour doesn’t, instead it cracks which gives the mottled effect.
Baked in the oven for 25min at 230deg. Incidentally, this was to be the first time I used a baking stone.

Results
The results were extremely pleasing. The bread rose and the tiger effect worked really well. Inside, the bread was soft and the top was crusty. It was like a supermarket one. I was so pleased.

 

Tiger Bread
Tiger Bread