Monday, October 21, 2013

How to Make Bread Bowls

This is my first recipe tutorial EVER, so please stick with me on this. I will eventually get the hang of all this, I promise!

In my conquest of learning how to cook, one of the few things I've gotten the hang of is baking bread. So I decided to step it up a notch! Instead of cooking a normal dinner of pasta for our family, I decided to go a little more fancy and put our noodles in bread bowls! I used my mom's handy Artisan bread recipe (with my slight alterations), and they were a hit!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup warm water (about 100 degrees)
  • 3/4 tsp yeast 
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • Optional add-ins: rosemary, garlic, chives, parsley, etc.
  • That's it!
  • No, seriously, that's all.

1. Mix together the yeast and kosher salt, and then add the warm water to allow the yeast to begin to bloom.

2.  Slowly mix in the flour until the mixture forms a moist dough.

3. Cover the dough with a towel and let rise in a warm spot for two hours or overnight. The longer you let the dough rise, the lighter the bread will be.


4. After letting the dough rise, punch it down and scrape dough away from the edges of the bowl (so it won't stick).

5. Oil your hands (any oil works, but I find that using olive oil gives the crust of the bread a nice flavor) and form your balls of dough. For smaller bowls, like I made, separate into four small balls. For medium bowls, separate into two balls. And for one large (and it will be large), use the whole bowl. Also, if you are using this recipe to simply make bread, my favorite way of dividing it is into two loaves. I find they are the perfect size to get through without worrying about it getting stale. If you try to make one loaf out of the mixture, it will be a very large one and will need to be eaten quicker (perfect if you're bringing it to a family get together or the like).

6. Let your balls of dough rise on parchment paper for at least forty minutes.

7. As you're nearing the end of letting your dough rise (you know your oven well enough to know when), preheat to 450 degrees. When the oven is ready, put a broiler pan or cookie sheet on the bottom rack and pour in it about two cups of water. This will make the oven steamy while the bread is baking and give it an amazing crust!

8. The bread bakes best if it is only on the parchment paper, but there are times when you're making the smaller loaves that the dough will want to fall through the rack of the oven. That is easily remedied by places the dough and parchment paper on a cookie sheet. The bottoms may be a little softer than without the cookie sheet, but they still turn out delicious.

9. If you separated the dough into fourths, bake for 25-30 minutes. If you separated the dough into halves, bake for 28-32 minutes. If you did not separate the dough, bake for 30-35 minutes. Allow the tops to brown and harden slightly!


10. Allow the bread to cool on the rack.

11. Now here's the fun part! Use a knife to cut a circle into the top of the loaf. The pull off the top crust of the circle and hallow out the insides. Be sure to hallow out under the rim of your "bowl" too! Put your scraps into a bowl and munch on them another time. They're very good with butter, salt, and garlic. We ended up eating them plain later on because this bread tastes so good by itself!


12. Cook your noodles (we went with penne) and mix it with your sauce of choice (the boys love Alfredo). Simply pour a helping into your bowls, serve, and enjoy!


I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!

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