Sourdough Bread Bowls
Who doesn’t love a personal sized bread bowl full of piping hot, cheesy, delicious soup?! It’s still winter, and these bowls are giving me exactly what I need. It’s like a giant hug or a warm, comforting blanket. I topped these with cheddar croutons made of the insides of the bread bowls. For both the soup and the croutons, Cabot extra sharp cheddar is a MUST! Bonus: the bowls keep well in a sealed container in the fridge and can be easily toasted to bring them back to life and fill them with hot soup many days after making them.
The quantity of dough outlined here makes three decently sized bread bowls. You could probably get four out of it if you have bowls small enough in which to proof the dough overnight in the fridge. Below I will share pictures of the bowls I used. Two additional key tools you’ll need here are clean tea towels and ideally some rice flour to dust the towels. Rice flour is magical in its ability to prevent dough from sticking to tea towels and proofing vessels. I went with Cabot cheddar tomato soup as a filling, which I HIGHLY recommend. It’s like having tomato soup and a grilled cheese but all in one vessel.
Bread Bowls:
450g bread flour* (90%)
50g whole wheat* (10%)
12g salt (2.5%)
365g water (73%)
100g starter (20%)
*In this recipe I’ve used King Arthur for the bread flour AND whole wheat.
Cheddar Croutons:
Torn pieces of the inside of the bread bowls
Spray oil
4oz shredded extra sharp Cabot cheddar
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk the flours and salt to combine. In a separate bowl measure the water, and then add starter. Whisk until you have a milky/frothy substance.
Pour the starter/water into the flour/salt bowl and mix the dough until there are no dry bits. Cover and let rest at room temperature (75F) for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes have passed, perform a round of stretch and folds. Cover, let rest again for about 45 minutes.
Laminate the dough by stretching it out onto a lightly wet surface, then fold the sides in and roll it up. Place the dough back into a bowl and cover.
Instructions continue below. Pictured on the left is the dough 45 minutes after the first stretch + fold. On the right, after lamination.
5. After about an hour perform another round of stretch and folds. Cover and let rest again. Repeat this 2 more times, each with about 30-40 minutes separating the stretch and folds. Sample schedule below.
1:30pm mix dough
2:00pm stretch + fold
2:45pm laminate
3:40pm stretch + fold
4:10pm stretch + fold
4:50pm stretch + fold
Below on the left: the dough right after dividing. On the right: the dough after shaping and placing into floured tea towels in bowls.
6. The total bulk fermentation time should be about 6 hours. After the final stretch + fold, let the dough sit (covered) for the remainder of the time ( until 7pm in my case using the sample schedule above).
7. To shape the bread bowls for their fridge rest, lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out. Divide into 3 or 4 equal portions and shape using a ball technique - roll each one around (seam side down) to build surface tension.
8. Line each of your proofing bowls with clean, rice floured tea towels. Place each dough ball, seam side up, into each bowl. Cover the dough with the rest of the towel and then move them all into the fridge overnight, or up to 48 hours.
9. When you’re ready to bake the bread bowls, preheat some baking vessels in the oven at 475F. I used my Challenger Bread Pan and a 6-quart dutch oven. I baked 2 bread bowls in the Challenger and 1 in the dutch oven all at the same time. If you only have 1 dutch oven, you could experiment with baking some on sheet pans - but I have not tried that.
10. Cut parchment paper squares, and then flip each bread bowl out so they are sitting on their parchment, seam side down. Cut an X on top of each one (not too deep!). Carefully load them into the hot baking vessels and bake for 30 minutes lid on, 10-15 minutes lid off.
11. Let the bread bowls fully cool, about 1-2 hours. Make the soup for your bowls while you wait! As mentioned above, I made Cabot cheddar tomato soup.
12. Once the bowls are cool, slice off the top and dig out the insides of the bowls. Save the delicious insides and made torn croutons crusted with cheddar! Simply spray a cookie sheet with olive or canola oil and arrange the torn pieces. Broil on high for 1-2 minutes until golden brown turning the sheet as necessary. Flip the croutons; broil for another minute, sprinkle the cheese, broil for another minute until melted. Keep an eye on this - you don’t want them to accidentally burn.
12. Pour your soup into each bowl, top with croutons and enjoy!
These will keep in the fridge for days without soup in them! So if you aren’t eating 3 or 4 bowls at once, place each bread bowl into a sealed bag or container and toast it when you’re ready to eat it. Warm the soup up as well and you’ll have delicious lunches ready for several days. Please let me know if you make these and tag @nokneadtoworry on Instagram!
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