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Artisan Bread Bowls

Yield: 5 -6 bread bowls
Prep Time: 6 hours
Cook Time: 28 minutes
Total Time: 6 hours 28 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 ¾ cups (533 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
  • ½ cup (71 g) whole wheat flour
  • ¼ cup nonfat dry milk
  • 2 teaspoons yeast
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 ½ cups lukewarm water, enough to make a smooth, soft dough

Instructions 

  • Let yeast dissolve in warm water until creamy, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients—by hand, mixer or bread machine— and knead till you've created a smooth dough.
  • Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 45 minutes; it should become puffy. Divide the dough into 5-6 pieces, depending on how large you want your bread bowl to be. Roll each piece into a ball. Place on a lightly greased or parchment covered baking sheet.
  • Cover the bread bowls with greased plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours (or up to 24 hours); this step will give the bread bowls extra flavor, and a delightfully crisp-chewy texture.
  • Two or more hours before serving, remove the bread bowls from the refrigerator. Uncover, and let them sit for about one hour while you preheat the oven to 425°F.
  • Just before baking, slash the top surface of the bowls several times with a sharp razor/knife to allow them to expand.
  • Bake for 22 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.

Notes

Flour Amount: as with all yeast doughs, I never use the flour amount called for in the recipe as a hard fast rule (unless a weight measure is given and then I pull out my kitchen scale). Because humidity, temperature, altitude and a multitude of other factors can impact how much flour you need in your yeast doughs, I always judge when to quit adding flour by the texture and look and feel of the dough rather than how much flour I've added compared to the recipe.
Tutorial: This tutorial on yeast may help identify how a perfectly floured dough should be.
Whole Wheat Flour: also, I often use half to 3/4 finely ground white whole wheat flour with good results - and sometimes I get crazy and use 100% whole wheat flour (always finely ground white wheat) but the bread is a bit more dense with 100% whole wheat flour. If using part or all whole wheat flour, add a few minutes to the kneading time to help develop the gluten.