Easy Sourdough Tiger Rolls [Dutch Crunch Topping]

Sourdough Tiger Rolls with a Dutch crunch topping are a recipe that your whole family will love! Adults and kids alike will be fascinated by the crunchy topping of these soft, slightly sweet dinner rolls. They are sometimes called giraffe bread, or Dutch crunch bread but tiger bread rolls are the most common name.

While these may look complicated, this tiger bread recipe is really easy to make. You make a soft, slightly sweet bread dough and then right before you're going to bake them, you paint the tops with the "Dutch Crunch" mixture made with rice paste. It's this mixture that crackles in the oven and creates the giraffe like spots.

While I have shaped this sourdough version into sourdough tiger rolls, you could shape the dough into a sourdough white bread bloomer loaf and paint the topping over the whole loaf. I've included instructions for this in the post below.

If you love these sourdough tiger rolls, you might also like to try these sourdough discard rolls, soft sourdough dinner rolls or these sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

This simple recipe for sourdough tiger rolls will yield around 12 rolls, depending on the how you divide the dough. You will love this sourdough recipe because:

Soft Sourdough Rolls for All Ocassions - these soft, slightly sweet sourdough tiger rolls make the perfect dinner roll for something a little different. They're also right at home filled with your favorite lunch meat and salad. Multipurpose rolls, we like that, right?

Easy To Work With Dough - this dough is super soft and elastic. It is slightly sticky but it shouldn't leave a residue on your hands. It's such a pleasure to work with this dough!

They're So Fun! - Whether you call them tiger rolls or giraffe bread these sourdough tiger rolls are so much fun to make and eat!

What are Tiger Rolls?

Tiger bread or Tiger rolls are the commercial name for soft white bread loaves or bread rolls with a mottled crust. The crust is painted with a paste made from rice flour, sesame oil and yeast.

While the rolls bake, this paste dries and cracks into a spotty, mottled crust that looks much like giraffe spots. So why do these rolls have the name "Tiger Rolls"?

Tiger rolls or Dutch Tiger bread originated in the Netherlands where it's known as "Tijgerbrood". When it was first created back in the 1970s the baker who came up with the idea thought the crackled crust looked like tiger stripes.

Tiger bread has been marketed as "Giraffe Bread" more recently in the US after suggestions it looks more like giraffe spots (and I'd have to agree with them).

Tiger bread is also marketed under different names such as "Dutch Crunch" and "Marco Polo Bread" in some areas of the US.

What Gives Tiger Rolls Their Crunchy Topping?

Tiger rolls are identified by their golden, mottled topping and crackly crust.

To make the topping, you need to create a paste using rice flour, sugar, active dry yeast, sugar and sesame oil. The sesame oil gives the rolls a wonderful flavor and I encourage you not to leave this out or substitute it for other oil.

But why does it crack? Well the rice flour in the paste is gluten free, so it doesn't expand in the oven. It bakes into a crust which then cracks as the bread beneath it expands. So scientific, right?

I've made this recipe many times and tested many different oils including olive oil, vegetable oil and grapeseed oil and none of them give the sourdough tiger rolls the same delicious flavor as the sesame oil!

How To Make Sourdough Tiger Rolls

Sourdough Tiger Rolls are really easy to make at home. There are two parts to the recipe - making the soft bread rolls and creating the rice paste topping. The topping is painted on right before the rolls are baked.

Making the Soft Sourdough Rolls

1. Add the sourdough starter, warm water and sugar together and stir until dissolved.
   
2. Now add the flour and salt and bring together into a rough, shaggy dough. Cover and allow the dough to sit for around one hour.
   
3. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead until it is smooth and supple. You can do this by hand or in a stand mixer or Thermomix, it's entirely up to you.
   
   Kneading by hand will take around 10 minutes. Try not to add any extra flour if you can as you want this dough to be supple. It should be stretchy and elastic when you're finished. It might feel slightly sticky, but it should come away from your hands easily.
   
   Kneading in a stand mixer will require a dough hook. Allow the dough to knead for a few minutes then give your mixer a 2 minute rest and then knead again for 2 minutes and so on. The dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl when it's done.
   
4. Once the dough has been kneaded, place it back into the bowl and allow it to rise just a little at room temperature. You don't want it to double, just let it rise around 30% so it's soft and workable.
   
5. Once the dough has risen a little, turn it out onto the counter and divide it into 10 to 12 equal pieces (you can use a scale if you want them exactly equal). I find 75g is the perfect dough weight for these sourdough tiger rolls.
   
6. Roll the pieces of dough into 10 to 12 round balls. Do not use flour to shape the rolls - you want them to remain soft and supple. Arrange the balls of dough onto a baking tray lined with a sheet of parchment paper. You want to give the dough balls some space so they don't join together as they rise.
   
7. Cover with a damp dish towel and allow the balls to puff up. Their skin should be taught and the dough puffy and soft. You can use plastic wrap for this, but you want to make sure that you oil the plastic wrap so it doesn't stick to the dough and tear the shaped rolls.

Making The Sourdough Tiger Roll Topping

1. While the dough balls are proofing and getting puffy, you can make the Tiger Crunch Topping.
   
2. Add all of the topping ingredients as listed under the heading in the recipe card into a bowl and stir together to form a paste. It should be thin enough that you can spread it, but not so thin that it will run off. Set this aside until you're ready to bake the rolls.
   
3. When you are ready to bake the Sourdough Discard Tiger Rolls, preheat your oven to 200C (392F).
   
4. Paint the top of the bread with some of the rice flour paste you made earlier. An offset spatula is perfect for this task. You want the bread rolls generously coated, but not dripping. Be really carefully not to squash the rolls as you don't want them to lose their beautiful round shape.
   
5. Place the sourdough tiger rolls into the hot oven (I like the middle position in the oven so that the topping doesn't burn) and bake for around 30 minutes or until the topping is crunchy and golden brown and the rolls sound hollow when you tap on their base.

Tips For The Best Sourdough Tiger Rolls

Here are my tips for baking the best sourdough tiger rolls. I've tested this recipe countless times to get it right and I've learned a lot of "what not to dos" along the way!

• Don't add extra flour to the dough. These rolls are meant to be soft inside. If you add extra flour, you'll make the dough dry and then you won't get the beautiful soft interior to these rolls.
  
• Make sure you allow the rolls to proof properly. If the rolls are under fermented then they won't expand enough when they hit the oven to make the rice paste crackle. This really is key and something that I discovered after not being able to get my topping to crack as much as I wanted.
  
• Paint the topping on fairly thick. If it's too thin it won't crackle and give you the giraffe spots you're after. If you've got lots left in your bowl once you've painted the rolls, then you haven't painted it on thick enough. I use the whole bowl of topping for 10 rolls.
  
• Use a spray bottle to wet the parchment paper around the tiger rolls before you bake them. The steam this will create in the oven will make sure your rolls get the best oven spring and helps the crumb stay soft.

How To Covert Sourdough Tiger Rolls to Discard

This recipe has been written using an active, bubbly sourdough starter that has been fed a few hours before. If you want to use sourdough discard, you can use 150g of sourdough discard with 4g of yeast.

Remember that using commercial yeast will mean that the timing of your rolls will be much faster and you won't need to leave the rolls to rise as long.

How To Make A Loaf of Sourdough Tiger Bread

If you'd prefer to make a larger loaf of sourdough tiger bread, rather than individual bread rolls then you can just shape the dough into a loaf.

A white bloomer loaf shape works best for tiger bread. Follow the shaping instructions in this sourdough French bread tutorial to get the right shaped loaf - it's so easy, there's nothing to it!

Baker's Timeline for Sourdough Tiger Rolls

This is the rough timeline I use when making sourdough Dutch crunch or tiger rolls. You could adapt this timeline to suit your own situation. You might also find this article on creating a sourdough baking timeline helpful in adapting it.

The Night Before

9pm - Feed your sourdough starter (feed it 1:3:3 so it is ready for you in the morning).

The Next Morning

9am - Mix the dough, knead and allow to rise a little in the bowl

12pm - Shape the rolls, arrange on a baking tray and leave to proof in a warm place.

6pm - Paint them with the Dutch Crunch Topping and bake them!

If you want to hit pause on this recipe, you can place your tiger rolls in the fridge once they shaped. I allow them to rise around half way and then put them in the fridge for up to 12 hours. When I want to bake them, I take them out, allow the to get nice and puffy, paint the topping on and then bake.

Frequently Asked Questions

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