![]() "It’s got great texture with the softness of a roll. "It’s the best sandwich bread," Lee says. He didn't realize it was a Bay Area thing until he moved to the East Coast. Richard Lee, a San Francisco native and chef de cuisine at Michelin-starred Saison, grew up with Dutch crunch. Mariah Tiffany / Special to SFGATE San Francisco's top chefs love Dutch crunch Textural differences between the crispy top of the rice flour coating and the softer bread is what makes this so special, as multiple textures excite the sensory experience." "The starches and sugars are what create a crispy texture when exposed to the heat in the oven," he adds.įor Chau, "the appeal of Dutch crunch is not only visual, but also textural. Rice flour does not contain gluten and has more carbohydrates in the form of various starches, creating the perfect crinkle topping when baked, Chau says. Together, these ingredients create an entirely different texture than the rest of the bread, transforming an otherwise regular roll into a little bite of magic. "That nice, golden brown you see on a Dutch crunch roll comes from what we call 'Maillard browning,'" explains Chau, "a reaction that happens when heat combines with the rice flour and sugar." The crust is made up of of rice flour, sugar, oil, water, and yeast, combined together into a paste and painted on top of the bread. What exactly is Dutch crunch? How is it made? And what makes a Dutch crunch a Dutch crunch? While no baker worth their salt is going to give away their secrets, we asked Brian Chau, a food scientist who runs his own San Francisco-base food consulting company, Chau Time, to break it down for us. Chelsea Davis, Special to SFGate What's so special about Dutch crunch? ![]() Raymond Ofiesh of Raymond's Sourdough Outlet and Bakery holds a fresh loaf of Dutch crunch. Its soft middle molds to whatever ends up inside the sandwich, but the cracked topping remains strong, giving your sandwich both shape and a perfectly crunchy texture. Its distinct golden-brown crinkled crust makes eating it a great sensory experience (and, for those interested in that sort of thing, autonomous sensory meridian response or ASMR). It's become a regional staple and can now be found in many delis, alongside its more classic bread counterparts, like sourdough.ĭutch crunch is an oblong, white roll. Although it hasn't yet caught on nationally, this crusty, dense sandwich bread is wildly popular but also very controversial here in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you were to ask a New Yorker, or even someone from LA or Seattle, what Dutch crunch is and what makes it so special, you would likely get a blank stare. It won't make it like day one fresh bread but it'll certainly make it edible again and good enough for some nice oil & vinegar or a nice slab of soft butter.Fresh Dutch crunch loaves from Raymond's Sourdough Bread Outlet and Bakery, South San Francisco. This method works wonders for stale bread as well, and you can keep the soft (cut) side softer by wrapping that bit in some foil.This seems counterintuitive, but if you've got some soft crust bread you want crisped up, crank your oven up, then wet the bread where you want it crispy (running a wet hand over it is about enough water), and chuck it in the oven directly on the rack and bake for a few minutes until you're satisfied.Rejuvenate the crust (best tip I ever received).Can cover with a tea towel (after complete dryness) and then just leave alone. If cut, place cut side face down on board or countertop. Don't place your bread into a container (even a bread box) until hours after finished. ![]()
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