The Quest for the Perfect Sandwich, Part 1: Dutch Crunch Bread

Recently, as in within the last year or two, a new sandwich place has moved onto Stanford's campus.  This place is called "Ike's", unsurprisingly started by a guy called Ike.  I actually really like the sandwiches at Ike's, as well as the fact that Ike himself is often the one running the sandwiches out the the happy customers.  I also actually really dislike two things about the dining experience at Ike's: 1 - the cost, and 2 - the hour and a half wait for sandwiches.  (Which explains the universal happiness that greets the sandwich runner of the day).

Believe it or not, this is homemade dutch crunch bread.
Fantastic.  This is the second attempt.

In order to save money while maintaining that sense of excitement that lunch has always brought out in me during the mornings, I've decided to embark on a quest to replicate Ike's sandwiches, or at least match their tastiness.  So, in order to do this, we must first isolate the special qualities that make their sandwiches so excellent.

I think we can safely divide a sandwich into 4 separate components:
1. bread, 2. sauce, 3. filling, and 4. 'toppings'

Ike's sandwiches excel in each of these categories.

Lets consider them in series.  First, the bread.  Bread is perhaps the MOST important component of a sandwich.  Not only is it the first thing you bite into, but its also the single largest element by volume.  The chewiness of the bread, how dry or moist it is, and in the case of heartier sandwiches like ruebens, the flavor of the bread, really dominate your eating experience.  Ike's sandwiches offer a large selection of breads, but almost everyone orders the 'Dutch Crunch'.  Apparently, this style of bread was invented right here in the Bay Area, although it can also be found in Britain and the Netherlands where it is called Tiger Bread.  From experience though, I don't think its as tasty over there.  (Although they have many other fine breads that are also fantastic).

My project at the moment has been to figure out how to get all the goodness of the Ike's dutch crunch bread.  The bread at the sandwich shop is baked fresh every day.  I tried buying dutch crunch rolls at Safeway, but they really didn't compare.  I did some searching, and I found this recipe.  I'm not going to rewrite it here, if you're interested go to the other website where it is very nicely described.  The secret to the crunch is actually a yeasty topping made with rice flour, which has the consistency of cake batter.  Its prepared separately from the rolls, and allowed to rise a bit on its own.  Then its applied in a thick layer during the last rise of the rolls.  When baked, it seems to cook first, forming a brittle shell which is then torn apart as the loftier bread dough underneath puffs up in the oven.  When you pull these fresh out of the oven, they have this amazing sweet crunchy exterior and a soft interior.  Fantastic!  They degrade significantly after sitting overnight, but I still prefer them to store bought bread.

Dramatic re-enactment.  It was very much like this, but
much hotter.

The first try worked pretty well.  The crunch part came out nicely and the bread was good, but dense.  I read this primer on bread baking, and decided to try again.  I left all the ingredients the same actually, but made 3 important changes to my technique.  First, it is important not to overwork the dough.  It should still be pretty sticky before the first rising step.  Second, I learned that baking stones also work really well for bread.  We have one of those, but we've only ever used it for pizza.  I pulled it out and put it to work.  (You'll save yourself a big headache if you use parchment paper to transfer the dough onto the stone.  Also works for pizza!).  Finally, having a steamy oven during cooking slows down the crisping of the crust, making it more stretchable, which allows the bubbles in the bread to expand more during cooking.  You'll have lighter fluffier bread.  This is accomplished by putting a source of steam, in my case a glass of ice cubes thrown into a cast iron skillet preheated to the oven along with the pizza stone. The changes work beautifully.


Most of these rolls have gone towards our lunches.  I've also been working on the 3 other sandwich components, which may be discussed in a future post.  I will leave you with tonight's dinner however, which is a Dave original recipe:

The Imperial Jerk Chicken Sandwich:
Makes Dinner for 2

What?  Jerk Sauce?  Fried Chicken? Together!
Yes, it can be done!

Ingredients:
For Chicken
1 large chicken breast, room temperature, cut into strips no more than 1/2" thick
1.5 cups flour
Montreal Chicken Seasoning
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup water
Salt
Cooking oil (I used peanut oil)

For Jerk Sauce:
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup dark rum
1 pickled habanero pepper (optional)
2 green onions
Big hunk of red onion (Like, 1/8 to 1/4 of a large onion)
1/2 green bell pepper
1 tbsp ground allspice

1 tbsp ground ginger
1/4 cup brown suger
1 tbsp mollasses
4 cloves garlic, or 1 big spoon-full of minced garlic from a jar
1.5 tbsp olive oil

Toppings:
Sour cream
The other 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
Lettuce (I like to use one of those premade store salad mixes)
Banana slices (Crazy right?  You'll be happy to have them if you used the habanero pepper in the jerk sauce)

Instructions:

To prepare sauce: Combine all ingredients except olive oil in food processor.  Pulse until the sauce is nearly a paste.  Heat oil in a frying pan, then add jerk paste (careful, its going to boil like mad when it hits the oil).  Cook until the vinegar smell has come off the sauce and it has thickened, about 3 minutes. (I used one pickled habanero pepper, and the sauce had our sinuses running.  You could try a fresh jalapeno instead.  Traditional jerk sauce uses scotch bonnet peppers, but I didn't have any of those)

To prepare chicken: Heat oil in a deep fry pan.  I use my trusty iron skillet.  I didn't deep fry the chicken; you only really need enough to cover the bottom of the skillet well, not more than 1/4 to 1/2 an inch.  Its less to clean up afterwards that way.

You need to set up two bowls, one with flour mixed with salt and montreal chicken seasoning.  The second bowl has the batter, which is made by beating the egg yolk with the water and more salt in a bowl, then adding flour and chicken seasoning until it has the consistency of pancake batter.  Take your chicken and first coat it nicely with the dry flour, then dip it in the batter, and finally coat it again in the dry flour.  Trust me, this will help you get enough batter to form a nice crunchy shell when the chicken fries.

Now put the battered chicken strips in the skillet.  Don't burn yourself on the hot oil which will inevitably start leaping out of the skillet.  Also, don't crowd the pan.  You want the oil to stay as hot as possible or the chicken will come out greasy.  Work in small batches, turning the chicken a few times to let the inside cook nicely without burning the crunch.  Its done when the coating is a deep deep brown. I always have to cut open a bigger piece just to make sure the chicken is cooked through.  Once cooked, put the chicken on a plate or shallow bowl lined with paper towels.  You can keep it warm tightly covering the top with more paper towels and a piece of aluminum foil.  We made sandwiches though so the chicken doesn't need to be too hot.

It may not be a particularly Jamaican
 spread, but its all tasty together anyway.

Serve with, of course, dutch crunch bread rolls.  The toppings we used were lettuce, sour cream, green pepper, and my favorite, banana slices!  The bananas really help cut the heat of the jerk sauce, and add a pleasant sweetness to the whole affair.  On the side we had a simple salad of corn, black beans, lime juice, and jicama.  (Alia's secret recipe.  I left out the secret parts)