I love a soft and fluffy white bread. It’s one of those simple treats that takes me to my childhood. Huge freshly baked white bread loaves were sold in our local shop. As a kid I used to love tearing a piece off of that big loaf and eating the white crumb before devouring the crispy crust.
Tiger bread or giraffe bread ticks all the boxes for that nostalgic taste and texture. It has a crispy crust and a super soft and slightly sweet interior. My version here is enriched with egg, butter, and sugar to make it even softer, and to make it stay softer for longer.
This recipe makes a huge loaf that will fit in a large 2lb (900g) loaf tin. To make it smaller multiply all the ingredients by 0.75x or make two smaller loaves. You can divide the dough into 8 buns too. In that case I would suggest at least doubling the amount of ingredients for the topping to account for the increased surface area.
Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.
Ingredients
For the dough –
500g (1.1lb) white bread flour
1 egg (50g; 1.75oz)
10g (0.35oz) salt
5g (0.17oz) instant dry yeast or 6g (0.21oz) active dry yeast or 15g (0.53oz) fresh yeast
20g (0.7oz) sugar
50g (1.75oz) butter
240g (8.46oz) water
For the topping –
1g (0.035oz) salt
1g (0.035oz) yeast
2g (0.07oz) sugar
10g (0.35oz) oil
35g (1.23oz) rice flour
35g (1.23oz) water
To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.
The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration.
If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.
If you are curious about why the dough contains butter, egg, and sugar, click the links to learn more about the effects those ingredients have on bread dough.
Method
- Make the topping. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix until smooth.
- Make the dough. In a large bowl combine the water, yeast, salt, sugar, egg, and butter. Give everything a good mix. Add the bread flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature around 24C (75F).
- Cover and ferment for 1 hour.
- Fold.
- Cover ferment for 1 hour.
- Pre-shape and rest for 20 minutes.
- Final shaping. Place the dough in a greased baking tin and brush it with the topping.
- Final proof 5 – 2 hours.
- Bake for 45 – 50 minutes at 180C (355F) fan on or 200C (390F) fan off.
Leave to cool down and tuck in!
Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.
Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.
