Artisan Bread Bowls #BreadBakers

These artisan bread bowls are crusty outside and tender inside, the perfect accompaniment/vessel for your favorite thick soups. (I served mine with New England style clam chowder.) And bonus: Serving soup in a bread bowl means no bowl to wash up either! 

I am the odd person out in my house. My husband and both daughters are massive bread fans but unless it’s hot out of the oven or, in the case of my favorite fromage jambon-beurre sandwich, filled with slices of jambon de Paris and Comté cheese first spread thickly with French butter, I can take it or leave it. 

Fortunately for my family, despite not eating it much, I love baking bread. I enjoy the process, slowing down and allowing the yeast or sourdough starter to do its work transforming flour and water. Like magic. And I especially love the wonderful aroma that wafts through the house when the bread is in the oven. It brings the family right downstairs and into the kitchen like a magnet. 

When I told my younger daughter that I was hosting this month’s Bread Bakers event and that I had chosen “bread that goes with soup” as our theme, she immediately said, “Make bread bowls!” So I did. 

Artisan Bread Bowls

Start the bread bowls a day before you are wanting to serve them to allow for an overnight stay in the refrigerator. The long, cold rise allows more flavor to develop. This recipe is adapted from one on the King Arthur Flour website.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups or 295ml lukewarm water

1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 cups or 375g flour

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1/3 cup or 40g whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup or 28g coconut milk powder (or sub powdered cow's milk)

Rice flour for sprinkling before scoring - you can sub regular flour but it will brown more than rice flour so the definition on the bread bowls won't be as obvious. 

Method

Add the warm water and 1/2 cup or 63g of the flour to your mixing bowl. Stir well and then sprinkle on the yeast. Cover and set aside for about 5-7 minutes. The yeast should activate and begin to bubble and foam.

Add in the rest of the ingredients, including the remaining 2 1/2 cups or 313g flour. 

Mix and knead them all together until you've created a smooth dough.

Cover the bowl and put it in a warm place. Leave the dough to rise for about 45 minutes. 

Prepare a baking pan by lightly greasing it or lining it with parchment or a silicone liner.

Punch it down and divide the dough into 4 pieces. My big ball of dough weighed 752g so I divided by four and each ball weighted 188g. I'm a little anal like that but if you are not, just eyeball it. 

Tuck under and roll each piece into a nice tight ball.

Place the balls on your prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with a little flour.

Cover the bread bowls with greased cling film.

Refrigerate for 4 hours or up to 24 hours. Mine were in the refrigerator for about 20 hours. The longer the slow rise time, the more flavor is created. 

When you are ready to bake, remove the bread bowls from the refrigerator. Uncover, and let them sit for about 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425°F or 218°C. 

Place one oven shelf in the middle of the oven and one under it at the bottom. While the oven preheats, put an ovenproof cast iron or metal pan on the bottom shelf. 

Just before baking, sprinkle the tops with rice flour and use a sharp blade to slash the top surface of the bowls in a circle to allow them to expand. 

Put the kettle on and boil enough water to fill the empty heated pan up halfway. 

When the oven reaches temperature, put the baking pan with the bread bowls in on the middle shelf and then quickly add boiling water to the hot pan on the bottom shelf. Close the oven door as quickly as you can to keep the steam in.

Bake for 23 to 28 minutes, until the bowls are deep brown, and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Remove from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Once they are completely cooled, use a serrated knife to cut the top off at an angle then cut around the inside and use your clean hands to remove the bread inside. 

I hate to waste good bread so I pulled the innards apart into small pieces and toasted them in a hot oven (375°F or 190°C) for about 12 minutes, to use as croutons for our soup. (This is two innards. I saved the other two bread bowls for another day and repeated the process.) 

Or you could make fresh breadcrumbs. Or stuffing. Just don't waste good bread, okay? 

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, it’s my Bread Bakers group post day, as it always is on the second Tuesday of each month since August 2014! I’m hosting and our theme is “Bread to go with Soup.” Check out the many great recipe links below. 

• Artisan Bread Bowls from Food Lust People Love
• Brazilian Cheese Bread from Passion Kneaded
• How to Make a Crusty French Baguette from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• No Knead Bread from Making Miracles
• Pao de Milho from A Messy Kitchen
• Skillet Corn Bread from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Soft Bread Rolls for Soup from Sneha's Recipe
• Sourdough Breadsticks from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Whole Wheat Rolls for Soups and Sandwiches from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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