Tag: dutch crunch

A lot of folks, like Randy, do not like meatloaf. Maybe that’s because they have not had the right opportunities to enjoy a good one? I remember enjoying my Mom’s meatloaf fairly often as a kid, usually with potatoes of some preparation and corn or some sort of green vegetable that she had lovingly prepared.

Back then, I never really turned meatloaf into leftover sandwiches, but I’ve come to learn that I enjoy a meatloaf sandwich almost as much as the sliced-on-the-side-of-potatoes version. Luckily a typical meatloaf is large enough to turn into multiple servings so you can enjoy it both ways. Meatloaf also reheats very well. It can be reheated either in the microwave, toaster oven or the best option would be in a skillet to crisp up both sides.

This week I made my favorite meatloaf recipe and I turned it into several sandwiches. You can read along to see what steps I took and what recipes I used.

Dutch crunch potato buns

With a crunchy, crackly, sweet exterior and a soft pillowy interior these are awesome rolls for a meatloaf sandwich. Toasted or untoasted they work well. Dutch crunch, also known as tiger bread (or sometimes giraffe bread) is slathered with rice flour, sugar, yeast and oil prior to baking and that mixture bakes into a craggly crunchy surface on the exterior of the roll.

Dutch crunch has become very popular as a sandwich bread in the Northern California area over the past few years. Theirs seems to be a much more firm doughy bread, whereas mine is based on a soft potato dough, so the interior of my buns are very soft. As usual, I’m not doing something that’s totally traditional here, but I feel that since sliced meatloaf is fairly soft on the sliced sides, you don’t really want a hard bread to serve as the boundaries of your sandwich.

Below is the recipe I have worked on for a few weeks. The first time I tried it I ended up applying too much glaze and it did not crack properly. But it still was crunchy and left you with a sweet crust. The glaze is much like the texture of glue and you only want a thin, even layer to achieve the proper tiger/giraffe pattern. Give the recipe a try, it’s a good one for all sorts of sandwiches.

The meatloaf

I based this recipe very loosely off of my Mom’s meatloaf. She is not a big fan of spicy food, so she never used sriracha in hers. I’m not even sure if we could get sriracha where I lived when I was growing up. Mom also baked her meatloaf in a loaf pan, whereas my recipe is baked freeform on a sheet pan. This allows me the ability to baste the meatloaf with my sriracha ketchup glaze which I do in fifteen minute intervals during the bake.

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The other stuff

Special sauce

This is one of the sauces I make for my smash burgers if I’m not using mayonnaise. I uploaded this recipe without finely diced pickles in the sauce, but that’s definitely an alternate version of the sauce that I really enjoy. The addition of the pickle juice means you don’t need the pickles, but it their addition gives it a bit of texture and visual appeal. Sometimes I’ll grate some yellow onion into this sauce too. But the simple version is the one I was using this week on my meatloaf sandwiches.

Shallots

Adding an extra crunchy element to any sandwich is a good call in my book. I fried up some thinly sliced shallots for a few of my meatloaf sandwiches this week and here’s the process I used. It’s barely a recipe with only two ingredients, but the temperatures of the frying oil and times are fairly important. Shallots also go from very blonde in color to super dark within the span of less than a minute, so you have to keep your wits about you when frying.

Two examples of my meatloaf sandwiches

And an extra version

Bake more meatloaf! Sandwich more meatloaf!