Crackle Bread, Dutch Crunch or Tijgerbrood...

Bread.  The staff of life.  Isn't it amazing the varieties of bread we make in various cultures?  I have been baking bread for many years and I am constantly wanting to try different bread recipes and methods of making bread.  I had just used up half of the last remaining loaf of bread and so declared to myself that today was bread-making day.   I decided to do something a little different in my bread making today -- crackle bread.  I had never heard of it until I was reading a blog called The Woman and the Wheat.  The post where I first discovered this yummy bread was here and that post was a springboard to a bit of online research to learn more about making Crackle Bread, Dutch Crunch, or Tijgerbrood (tiger bread in Dutch) -- whichever name you wish to call this tasty loaf.  I checked one of my favorite bread sites, The Fresh Loaf and found a nice listing of  the breads here.  I also found The Knead For Bread, a lovely bread recipe collection blog, and I used their Crackle Bread recipe for my topping and just made one of my standard bread recipes as the foundation loaf.  As you can see by the above picture, the topping is really a dough in and of itself.  It is a rice batter that is made ahead before you are ready to bake your loaves so it has time to rise.  Then you frost your raised bread loaves generously with the rice batter and pop them into the oven to bake.  The result is a crackly top as pictured below.

You can see by the above picture that my largest loaf has the deepest cracks, and I remember coating it a bit thicker than the others.  I really should have made double the rice batter to slather on the other loaves before baking, but alas, I only had what I had.  I *think* the bread may have had a crustier top and more crunch had I been more generous with it.  Next time I will also add a little more bake time for a darker crust and deeper contrast in the bread cracks.

The topping on the bread is sweet and crunchy and really adds a nice dimension to the everyday loaf. It does not fall off like some toppings I have added to breads, but that's because it's a batter and it sticks better than seeds and grains that are sprinkled onto an egg wash.  I'm anxious to try this again with the next batch of bread, and I will definitely double the rice batter.  I'd really like to try it on rolls too.  You'd get more crunch on individual rolls, I think.  Yum!

**Addendum

One thing to note, make only enough crackle bread to eat fresh.  If you put the loaves or rolls in plastic bags, the crunchy topping gets soft.  It doesn't affect the bread or the taste, but there's just no crunch.  Also, next time I will not make loaves in bread pans, but make them free-standing on cookie sheets so as to smear on more rice batter for coverage and over-all crunch.