Daring Bakers' Challenge March 2012 - Dutch Crunch Bread

Well, its time for this month's Daring Baker's Challenge again. This challenge wasn't all that daring, but it was delicious. Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses. Sara and Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch Bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to make a one of a kind sandwich with our bread.

The bread is quite interesting - it is a white sandwich bread topped with a thick layer of a mixture of rice flour, yeast and water. This mixture cracks and turns golden as the loaf bakes, giving the bread it's unique appearance. I'm going to send you over to the Daring Baker's website for the recipe since I didn't change a thing. I used the white sandwich bread recipe and topped it with the dutch crunch topping.

 I decided to make my bread into a Muffuletta sandwich. I adapted the recipe from Bobby Flay's Throwdown cookbook (which is a stellar cookbook, well worth the purchase!!).

 Muffuletta
Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay's Throwdown

Ingredients:

• 1 round loaf of dutch crunch bread
• 1/3 lb thinly sliced genoa salami
• 1/3 lb thinly sliced serrano ham
• 1/3 lb thinly sliced lean capicola
• 1/3 lb thinly sliced spanish salami
• 1/4 lb thinly sliced provolone cheese
• 1/4 lb thinly sliced swiss cheese
• 1 recipe special dressing

Special Dressing:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp sherry cooking wine
• 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 cup pitted green olives
• 1 roasted red bell pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 pepperocini peppers
• 1 tbsp capers
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. First, make the special dressing. Combine all ingredients except the capers in the bowl of a food processor. Whirl until mixture is almost smooth, but still a little chunky. Stir in the capers.
2. Slice the bread in half horizontally. Spread both halves of the bread generously with the dressing. Layer the meats and cheeses on the bottom half of the bread and cover with the top half.
3. Serve cold. Serves 8 - 10 people.

 Here are some pictures of this monster sandwich. Don't worry about the olives in that dressing... my hubby hates olives, but he was madly in love with this sandwich. It all goes together so perfectly with no flavour overwhelming the others.

 It was a little hard to cut due to all of the toppings, but it still tasted great.

This post has been yeast spotted!

This post has been linked up with Fusion Fridays over at Jennifer Cooks. Head over to check out other delicious goodies other bloggers have whipped up this week.

Thanks Sara and Erica for hosting an interesting challenge. I can't wait to go around and check out what kind of sandwiches everyone else made. Happy Baking my Friends!