Tiger Bread – or Giraffe Bread, but more accurately Tortoise Bread

Traditionally, these buns were called "tiger buns". Clearly, whoever gave them that name had never seen a tiger: they are striped. Then, one day, a little girl wrote to a big supermarket stating that according to her humble opinion, it would be more accurate to call this bread "giraffe bread" on account of its shapes and colours that remind her of the markings of a giraffe rather than of those of a tiger. We are getting closer now, but we're not quite there yet. Sure, there is an improvement from tiger to giraffe, but how is it that no one has ever understood this bread's true nature?
One day, Divine Cherry and Celestial Dragon were walking on an island off the western coast of South America. The island was teeming with weird and wondrous animals, and its vegetation was lush and dense. It was a very popular islands among the gods, since it was the location where of one of the most famous shampoo commercials ever to be aired on DeiTV was shot. With a magical arrow. Be that as it may, Celestial Dragon and Divine Cherry, upon stopping on a small tree-covered hill, found themselves next to a greenish, Spanish-speaking bump in the ground. As it turned out, it was in fact a giant tortoise. Its life had been one of green boredom. In its youth, it had advocated for an ecologically minded revolution that fought for a ban on the consumption of salad by non-herbivores. After all, it wasn't fair – on account of their set of teeth, herbivores couldn't have sides of steak with their main meal! The movement fell in disgrace and its members disbanded. Since then, the giant Spanish-talking tortoise had led a life of renunciation, eating only blades of grass on the top of which a drop of dew was precariously perched. Divine Cherry and Celestial Dragon were moved by the tortoise's story, and so they decided to help it find it a meaning in life again. And so they came up with the idea of turning it into bread. For that way, they argued, the tortoise itself would become the side order with the salad, and would, therefore, have ultimately won its cause!
Obviously, the tortoise was sceptical at first. Also at second, and even at its third thought the tortoise wasn't sure it wanted to become bread.
And so it was that they left it to it. When they got back to the Infinite Palace, however, Divine Cherry set about to prepare "Tortoise buns" – as a souvenir and tribute to the activist, Spanish-speaking tortoise.

Blog-checking lines: 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!


Tiger/Giraffe/Tortoise buns (aka Zoo Buns) Recipe provided by Baking JD  for the Daring Bakers challeng of March



Topping:
- 2 packets (15 gm) active dry yeast
- 240 ml warm water
- 30 g sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 240 g rice flour
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat them with a whisk 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 it stand for 15 minutes.

Coat the top of each loaf or roll with a thick layer of topping. Make sure you don't put too few topping, it will not crack if there isn't enough of it on the loaf.
When baking, place pans on a rack in the center of the oven and bake your bread as you ordinarily would. The Dutch Cruch topping should crack and turn a nice golden-brown color.

White rolls

- 1 packet (7g) active dry yeast
- 60 ml warm water
- 240 ml warm milk
- 20 g sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
- 1½ teaspoons  (9 g) salt
- 600 g all purpose flour

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let it sit for about 5 minutes (the mixture should start to bubble or foam a bit and smell yeasty).
Add in vegetable oil, salt and 300 g of flour. Using the dough hook attachment or with your hands, mix at medium speed until the dough comes together.
Add the remaining flour a quarter cup at the time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and 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 it has 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. Shape each into a ball and place them on a floured baking tray (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. Coat the top of each roll or loaf with the topping as described above. Once you’ve applied the topping, bake in a preheated moderately hot 200°C for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Let them cool completely on a wire rack before eating.

Copertura:
- 2 bustine di lievito di birra in polvere
- 240 ml acqua tiepida
- 30 g  zucchero
- 2 cucchiai (30 ml) olio vegetale
- ½ cucchiaino di sale
- 240 g farina di riso

Mescolare gli ingredienti in una ciotola con una frusta a mano per evitare grumi. La pasta deve avere una consistenza cremosa, non troppo liquida. Sollevando un po' di impasto con la frusta, questo deve scivolare via pesantemente. In caso aggiungere un po' di acqua o farina per raggiungere la giusta consistenza.

Spalmare la copertura sui panini prima di infornarli. Coprire i panini con uno strato piuttosto spesso di copertura: se lo strato e' troppo sottile non si crepera' in forno e non si formeranno i tipici disegni.

Panini:
- 1 sacchetto (7 g) di lievito di birra in polvere
- 60 ml acqua tiepida
- 240 ml latte tiepido
- 20 g zucchero
- 2cucchiai (30 ml) di olio di oliva
- 1½ cucchiaino (9g circa) di sale
- 600 g farina

In una ciotola, mescolare lievito, acqua, latte e zucchero. Lasciar attivare per 5 minuti (si dovrebbero formare delle bolle in superficie). Aggiungere l'olio, il sale e 300 g di farina. Mescolare con un cucchiaio di legno per amalgamare gli ingredienti e aggiungere il resto della farina un po' alla volta. Poi impastare con il gancio a uncino (o a mano) finche' l'impasto non diventa liscio ed elastico. Riporre in una ciotola unta d'olio e lasciar riposare coperto con pellicola per un'ora o fino a che non sara' raddoppiato di volume. Dopo questo tempo, riprendere l'impasto e dividerlo in 6 parti uguali, formare delle palline (cercando di non lavoralo troppo per non vanificare la lievitazione), poggiarle su una teglia infarinata, coprirle e lasciarle riposare per 15 minuti. Nel frattempo preparare la copertura.
Spalmare i panini con abbondante copertura e infornarli in forno gia' caldo (200 C). Cuocere per 25-30 minuti finche' si saranno formate le caratteristiche crepe sulla superficie e il panino sara' diventato dorato.


Enjoy,
And Spread the Mess