Easy Homemade Bread Bowls

Yesterday I had plans to make potato soup for dinner. After searching recipes online and paging through some cookbooks the last couple evenings, I came up with a game plan. Then, early afternoon, when checking email, I saw a post that mentioned homemade bread bowls. What great timing!

I don’t think I’ve ever had anything in a bread bowl before even though I’ve seen them filled with dip at parties and on restaurant menus filled with soup or salad. But coming across a recipe to make them from scratch got my attention. And it was from Sally’s Baking Addiction, a very trusted source for all things baked.

With not a lot of hands-on time required and only one full rise, it looked doable to have these ready in time for dinner. With only a couple short breaks from my work-from-home workday, they were ready and cooling before I even started on the soup, plus, the house smelled amazing.

Following the recipe, the only change I made was to use instant yeast in place of active-dry. That made for a really quick rise to double in size, about 35 minutes. And the second rise after you form the dough balls is only the time it takes to preheat your oven. The egg wash gives the bread bowls that beautiful shiny golden exterior and the interior is a perfectly soft, heavenly texture that you only get with homemade.

Fill with your favorite soup, salad, or dip, take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy! It’ll taste even better if it’s cold and snowy where you are.

• Servings: 6
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From Sally’s Baking Addiction

4 and ½ teaspoons either instant yeast or active-dry yeast (2 packets)

2 and ¼ cups (540 ml) warm water (105-115 degrees F.)

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

6 cups (780 grams) bread flour, plus more for hands and surface

Egg wash: 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk (any kind of milk, including almond or soy)

Pour the warm water over yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. If you don’t have a stand mixer, a regular large mixing bowl will work. Whisk together and allow to sit for 10 minutes, until foamy.

If you do not have a stand mixer, mix by hand in this step. With the stand mixer running on low speed, add the sugar, salt, olive oil, and 4 cups of the bread flour. Mix on low speed for 1 minute, then add remaining 2 cups of flour. Mix on low speed for 5-6 minutes. The dough should be thick, yet soft, and only slightly sticky. It should pull away from the sides of the bowl as it mixes. If it’s too sticky, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a ball. Grease the bowl you mixed the dough in with a little olive oil. Return ball of dough to the bowl and turn it over once to oil the top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in warm area to rise until doubled in size, 45-90 minutes, depending on whether you used instant or active dry yeast.

Once doubled in size, punch down the dough to release any air bubbles. Remove dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down again. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball.

Line 2 large baking sheet with parchment or silicone baking mats. Place 3 dough balls onto each sheet. Cover lightly and set aside to rest as your oven preheats.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Just before putting in the oven, brush the dough balls with the egg wash. If desired, using a sharp knife, score an X into the tops of each (I did this on 5 of the 6 and it looks pretty, but isn’t a necessity).

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. About halfway through, rotate the pans from top to bottom and rotate each 180 degrees, for even baking. Let cool on pan or cooling rack. The bowls will be easier to cut if they have cooled somewhat.

For serving, cut a large round off the top of each bread bowl. Scoop out the center (either save to dunk in soup, or reserve for another use). Fill with soup, stew, or salad. Leftover bread bowls can be stored covered, at room temperature for a couple days, or wrapped and frozen for several months (bring to room temperature before serving). I wasn’t able to eat an entire bread bowl (my husband, however, found it easy to do), so I refrigerated the uneaten portion and enjoyed it with soup (in a regular bowl) the next day—don’t let any of that delicious bread go to waste! Make 6 bread bowls.

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

A while back I was looking for a whole wheat bloomer recipe and a couple of those I came across included malt. Since I didn’t have any, I moved on to the next recipe. Then one day I was looking at the ingredients in the artisan bread we really like from a local bakery and it listed malt. Hmmm…is that the secret ingredient to outstanding homemade bread, I wondered. So I did a little research.

Turns out there are two types of malt (a derivative of barley) powder used in bread baking, diastatic and non-diastatic. Diastatic gives your bread a stronger rise, better texture, nicer crust color, and even extends the shelf life. Non-diastatic is used mostly for flavor, but it’s also what gives bagels their shiny crust (and elevates a plain old milkshake to rock star malt status).

Sounded to me like the diastatic was what I was looking for, and after trying in vain to find it at local stores, I ordered a bag from King Arthur Flour. You only use ½ to 1 teaspoon per three cups of flour, but it really makes a difference. Whole wheat bread loaves that were previously a little too dense for sandwiches were much lighter and fluffier. English muffins cooked up thicker with the same amount of dough. Every yeast bread I’ve made using this malt powder has turned out even better than before.

And now I’ve used it in pita bread (pocket bread). I forgot it in the first batch I made and they were good, but wow, everything was just better in the batch with malt powder. The dough rose higher, it was easier to roll, it puffed higher in the oven, and the pitas stayed puffed much longer after they were out of the oven, resulting in perfect pockets when cut in half for stuffing.

Speaking of stuffing, pita bread is the perfect sandwich vehicle. Gyros and falafel are traditionally served in pitas, but anything you would normally put between two slices of bread is pita-appropriate. You can also cut them into wedges and serve with hummus—oh my, I’m getting hungry just thinking of the possibilities! On to the recipe—I’m off to make some hummus. Enjoy!

• Servings: 8 pitas
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1 tablespoon active dry yeast (about 1 ½ envelopes)

1 tablespoon honey (use organic sugar or pure maple syrup for a vegan version)

2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees F.)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached bread flour

1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt

1 teaspoon diastatic malt powder (optional)

In a medium bowl, whisk the yeast into the warm water. Stir in the honey. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir in yeast mixture until you have a stiff dough. You can use your hands for the final mixing—you want the flour to be fully incorporated. Dough will be fairly sticky. Cover bowl with a damp tea towel and place in a warm, draft-free place and let rise until double in size (about an hour).

Punch down dough and turn it out onto a flour-dusted surface. Knead a few times and shape into a round. Cover again with tea towel and let rise for about a half hour.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Lightly oil two large baking sheets.

Using a sharp knife, cut round of dough into 8 equal wedges. Take one wedge in your hand and tuck dough underneath as you turn it to shape into a ball. Place ball onto a well-floured surface and flatten into a round and sprinkle with a little flour. Using a rolling pin, roll into a 6-7 inch round and place on baking sheet. Repeat with another wedge of dough. Bake 8-10 minutes, turning pan once halfway through. Rounds will puff up like a pillow during baking. Remove to racks to cool.

While first two pitas are baking, repeat process with two more wedges of dough. Continue until all are baked. If pitas don’t deflate on their own while cooling, gently press them down. Once they are cool, you can stack them and that will flatten them as well. Makes 8 pitas.