Bread Bowls Boules Recipes

SOURDOUGH BOULE

Steps:

• Mix the flour and 1 1/2 cups of the water in a large bowl until a shaggy dough forms. Cover the bowl with a lid or plate and let stand until the flour absorbs the water, 30 to 45 minutes.
• Add the sourdough starter, salt and remaining 3 tablespoons water to the dough. Squeeze and twist with your hands until a sticky dough forms (it will be soupy at first, but continue mixing). Knead the dough in the bowl by scooping under the dough, stretching it up and twisting it while you rotate the bowl a quarter turn; slap down the dough and repeat. Continue kneading until the dough smooths out and pulls away from the bowl, 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and cover with a lid. Let rest in a warm place, 30 minutes.
• Uncover the dough. Gently reach under the dough with a wet hand, stretch it up as far as it will go without tearing, then fold the dough over itself. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat three times; this is a set of turns. Do another set of turns, then re-cover the bowl and return to a warm place to rest, 30 minutes.
• Do two sets of turns every 30 minutes until the dough has increased in size by one-third and has large bubbles in spots, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 more hours, covering the bowl after each time. After the last set of turns, cover the bowl and let the dough rest another 30 minutes.
• Turn out the dough onto a generously floured work surface. Slide a bench scraper or large spatula underneath and fold the dough in half. Cup floured hands around the dough and gently roll it in a circular motion into a taut ball. Let rest, uncovered, 20 minutes (the dough will flatten a little).
• Line a medium bowl with a clean lint-free towel and dust generously with flour. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour, then slide a bench scraper or large spatula underneath and flip it over. Working gently to not deflate the dough, pull each of the four "sides" of the dough up and into the center, folding the last side to cover the whole top of the dough. Roll the dough over so the seams are on the bottom. Slide a bench scraper or large spatula underneath and gently invert the dough into the towel-lined bowl with the seam up. Cover loosely with the overhanging towel. Let rest in the refrigerator, at least 8 hours and up to 18 hours.
• About 30 minutes before baking, place a 10- to 11-inch Dutch oven with a lid in the middle of the oven and place a baking stone or large cast-iron skillet on the bottom rack to absorb the heat; preheat to 450˚ F. Carefully remove the Dutch oven from the oven and uncover. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, uncover and lay a large round of parchment on top. Invert the dough onto the parchment. Carefully lower the dough (on the parchment) into the hot Dutch oven. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, make a few 1/4- to 1/2-inch-deep cuts in the top so that the dough can expand.
• Transfer the pot to the oven; cover with the lid. Bake until the bread has risen and the crust is pale, about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until the crust is browned and crisp and a thermometer inserted into the center registers 210˚ F, 25 to 35 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes in the pot, then transfer to a rack to cool completely, about 2 hours.

ITALIAN BREAD BOWLS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
• Add salt, oil and 4 cups flour to the yeast mixture; beat well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with an electric mixer at medium speed after each addition.
• When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
• Punch dough down, and divide into 8 equal portions. Shape each portion into a 4 inch round loaf. Place loaves on lightly greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about 35 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, beat together egg white and 1 tablespoon water; lightly brush the loaves with half of this egg wash.
• Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Brush with remaining egg mixture, and bake 10 to 15 more minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks.
• To make bowls: Cut a 1/2 inch thick slice from top of each loaf; scoop out centers, leaving 3/4-inch-thick shells. Fill bread bowls with hot soup and serve immediately.

BREAD BOWLS (BOULES)

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl (need room for this to rise), whisk or sift the dry ingredients together.
• Add the water, stir until all the flour is incorporated and wet dough starts to stick to sides.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for anywhere from 6 to 30 hours (depending upon room temperature) until it has risen and has large air pockets in it (a glass mixing bowl is nice so you can see this). Best to do this overnight, but I have mixed it in the morning and baked it for dinner.
• About 2 hours before you want to eat these, separate the dough into 2-4 pieces (depending on how big you want the bowls - this recipe will make 2 very generous 8" boules, or 4 smaller ones). You will want to wet, or oil, or flour your hands, since the dough will be very sticky and elastic.
• Pull the edges of each chunk of dough under, to form a smooth top roughly in the shape of a ball. Place each chunk in an appropriately-sized (slightly smaller than your baking vessel) oiled bowl or plastic container, turning to coat with oil. Leave the smooth side down since this will be the top of your loaf.
• Cover containers with lint-free towels to rise for an hour or so before preheating the oven. This would be 1.5 to 2 hours total rise time. The "baking" time given at the top of the page counts roughly 30 minutes of preheating time. The actual time the loaves are in the oven depends upon the size of the loaves, but large loaves would take 20-25 minutes, 4 smaller loaves only about 15-20 minutes, and 2 batches of small loaves slightly more than 30 minutes. I've baked this as one huge loaf in an oval roaster(not recommended - it came out a foot wide and rather flat) and it took 28 minutes plus 5 minutes browning.
• An hour before you want to eat, arrange your oven with the rack in the middle position and a baking vessel for each boule placed on the rack (you can bake these in batches if you don't have enough baking dishes, they don't take long). These can be 7-8" oven-safe glass covered casseroles, cast iron, whatever you have as long as they have oven-safe lids (don't forget about the knobs!). Preheat to 450 F. If you don't have anything suitable, you can use cake pans (deeper is better though) or a baking stone. You will have to preheat the baking stone (as I'm sure you know if you have one LOL), though the dough is so wet it will spread. If using cake pans, don't preheat them - you can just let the final rise happen in the greased cake pans, since you're not preheating those (saves some dishwashing!) I used a 6x3 decorator aluminum cake pan covered with a Pyrex lid. I suppose you could cover each cake pan with parchment paper and foil instead, to try to keep the steam in, if you don't have lids you can use.
• When the oven has preheated to 450, and you've left the stoneware/cast iron/baking stone in for at least 10 minutes past that to get good and hot, CAREFULLY take it/them out and plop the dough into/onto the hot surface (just turn the rising container upside down over it, no need to get fancy since the pot gives the boule its shape). I don't own a baking stone so I don't know how well the boules will hold their shape on that - but expect them to spread.
• Using clean scissors or a serrated knife, cut an X in the top of each loaf. Carefully put the hot lids (if using) back on the casseroles (if baking in a cake pan just mist the top with water, or apply a milk or egg wash) and place them on the center rack.
• The smallest vessel I used for this batch was a 500ml individual Corningware casserole, with no lid. I didn't cover it with foil or anything, it rose right away (oven spring) without it, browned very nicely, and given the small size of the dough balls, I think it gave the nicest shape for a boule, though it seemed like there was too much dough for the vessel when I first tipped it in (it also ended up a little lopsided). The other pans (6" cake pan, 1.5qt Corningware casserole, and 3qt enameled cast iron Dutch oven) were all a little too big, so the boules ended up flatter.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on size of loaves, check the tops for browning. Then remove the lids (if using) and leave them in the oven until browned to your satisfaction (0 to 10 minutes).
• Turn the loaves out of the pans onto a wire rack - they should sound hollow when you knock on the bottoms. If the bottom is not browned/crisp enough, you can return to the oven - just place directly on the rack for a few minutes. In fact, this might be good to do instead of just removing the lids and leaving them in the oven - if filling with soup or chili you would want them with a little crisper crust all over, and a little drier inside, than we typically eat (this bread has a wonderful crust and crumb/custard, but it might get a bit soggy inside after filling with soup).
• If you are baking these in batches there is no need to wash or preheat the covered vessels - just carefully wipe out any flakes of brown crust and plop the rest of the dough in and bake as above. If using cake pans, you probably want to let them cool enough to grease again, unless you're using nonstick, in which case it will probably be OK to put the dough in the hot pan.

ARTISAN BOULE

Steps:

• Poolish: In a small bowl, stir together yeast, water, and bread flour until it has the consistency of thick pancake batter. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature 8 to 12 hours.
• Dough: In a liquid-measuring cup, stir together yeast and water until yeast is dissolved. Place poolish and both flours in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Add yeast mixture and mix on medium-low speed until a sticky dough forms, about 2 minutes. Add salt and increase speed to medium-high; mix until dough is smooth and elastic, and cleans sides and bottom of bowl, about 9 minutes. Scrape dough onto a lightly floured surface and gather into a ball with oiled hands, then transfer to a large oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• On a lightly floured surface, pat dough into a 12-by-10-inch rectangle with one short side parallel to edge of work surface. Fold dough into thirds, aligning edges carefully. Fold dough in half. This completes one turn. Flip dough so seams are facing downward and gently shape into a ball. Return to oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees with a pizza stone on center rack, and a cast-iron skillet on rack below. Be sure to remove any additional racks from oven.
• Place a sheet of parchment on a pizza peel or unrimmed baking sheet and lightly dust with flour; set aside. On a lightly floured surface, repeat folding process to complete a second turn. Gather corners of dough and pinch together, then flip dough over, shaping into a tight ball. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to prepared pizza peel, adjusting shape as needed. Loosely cover with oiled plastic. Let stand in a warm spot until puffy and full of air, about 45 minutes.
• Lightly dust surface of bread with flour. Using an oiled razor blade or a very sharp knife, score surface in a decorative pattern. Working as quickly as possible, carefully slide parchment from peel onto pizza stone. Pull just enough of heated skillet out of oven to add ice before closing oven door. Bake until bread is deep golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into center reads 205 degrees, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

THE MIRACLE BOULE

Steps:

• Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Stir in 1 1/2 cups/375 ml water to blend. What you'll have is a wet, shaggy, sticky dough, but not so wet as to be batter. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rest in a warm place for at least 12 hours, and up to 24 hours. It's ready for the next step when the surface is dotted with bubbles.
• Flour a work surface and dump the dough out onto it. Sprinkle over a little more flour and fold it once or twice. Cover with the tea towel and let rest 15 minutes.
• Using only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers, shape the dough into a ball. Coat a cotton towel with cornmeal, wheat bran or flour and lay the dough on it, seam-side down. Dust with more cornmeal, wheat bran or flour. (You need quite a lot because you want to be sure the dough doesn't stick to the towel). Cover and let rise for about 2 hours. When ready, the dough will be more than double in size.
• Half an hour before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F/230 degrees C. Put a 2-liter cast-iron pot or Dutch oven (cocotte) inside to heat.
• When the dough is ready, remove the pot from the oven and turn the dough into it, seam-side up. (It will look messy, but this is OK.) Shake the pot to settle the bread evenly. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake until the loaf is nicely browned, another 15 to 30 minutes. Cool on a rack.

FRESH BAKED BOULES

Steps:

• Dissolve salt, sugar, and yeast in the warm water and allow the yeast to proof. ("Proofing" the yeast is testing it for viability. It will develop a foam which looks like the head of a beer. If it doesn't proof, the yeast is dead and should be discarded.) Proofing takes about 15 minutes. Place flour in a food processor fitted with a dough blade, and through the feed tube with the food processor running, slowly pour the proofed yeast mixture, until the dough comes together and is a cohesive mass. Transfer the dough to a floured board, and knead for about 5 minutes. Place in a bowl, cover with a clean dish towel and allow dough to rise, so that it roughly doubles in volume. (This will take about 30 minutes to 1 hour). The dough has risen enough if you make an indentation with your finger and it does not spring back.) Punch the dough down and allow it to rise again. (Allowing the dough to rise a second time gives it a finer texture.) Note: It will not rise as much the second time.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Divide the dough in half, and transfer half to a floured board and keeping the balance covered with the towel. Shape the dough into a circle by pulling from the side and pushing the dough under and up from the bottom to form a dome, rotating to make it circular. Cover with a piece of oiled plastic wrap and let rest 10 minutes. Repeat for each section of dough. Grease a round cake pan for each loaf and transfer dough to the pans. (This shape will keep the dough from flattening out while it bakes.) Brush with melted butter and bake until the crust is golden brown and crispy. When done, the bread should sound hollow when tapped, approximately 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes in pan. Remove from pan and serve warm or room temperature with butter.