Tiger bread

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Tiger bread
Type Bread
Place of origin Netherlands
Main ingredients Flour, sesame oil, rice paste
Cookbook:Tiger bread  Tiger bread

Tiger bread (also sold as Dutch crunch in the US, tijgerbrood or tijgerbol in Netherlands and giraffe bread in Canada and in Sainsbury's branches throughout the United Kingdom) is the commercial name for a loaf of bread which has a unique mottled crust. Within the United States, it is popular in the San Francisco Bay Area (as "Dutch crunch").[1] In the Netherlands the bread can easily be found in most bakeries and supermarkets, such as Jumbo and Albert Heijn.


The bread is generally made with sesame oil, which gives it a distinct aroma, and with a pattern baked into the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking.[2] The paste dries and cracks during the baking process. The rice paste crust also gives the bread a distinctive flavour. It has a crusty exterior, but is soft inside. Typically, tiger bread is made as a white bread bloomer loaf or bread roll, but the technique can be applied to any shape of bread.

Other names[edit]

The name originated in the Netherlands, where it is known as tijgerbrood or tijgerbol (translation: tiger roll), and where it has been sold at least since the early 1970s.[citation needed] In the US, it is generally sold as "Dutch crunch", though recently,[when?] some stores have begun to sell it as "Dutch crust". The US supermarket chain Wegmans sells it as "Marco Polo" bread.[3]

In January 2012, the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's announced that they would market the product under the name "giraffe bread".[4]


  1. ^ Jones, Carey. "California Eatin': Dutch Crunch in the Bay Area". Serious Eats. 
  2. ^ "Snap, crackle, crunch bread". Modern-baking.com. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2011-07-04. 
  3. ^ "Wegmans Product Page". 
  4. ^ "Tiger bread renamed giraffe bread by Sainsbury's". BBC News. 31 January 2012.