Katherine Grandstrand| Taste
There is something so comforting about a miniature loaf of bread filled with steamy soup.
Whoever first thought to hollow out some bread and fill it with soup deserves a Nobel Prize in hygge, if that category is ever added.
From Danish and Norwegian, hygge essentially translates to a sense of being cozy, comfortable or content.
The bread bowl concept originated in 15th century Ireland, according to Foodicles. A British duke was served soup in a loaf by an Irish nobleman and was impressed, so the Brit invested in a bread bowl shop that was run by the Irishman in what is now Dublin.
Nearly 600 years later, it’s fairly common to find a bread bowl full of delicious soup on menus across the U.S., especially this time of year as the weather turns.
Making a bread bowl is somewhere in between making buns and making an artisan loaf — standard bun size would be too small, but most of us would not be able to eat a loaf’s worth of bread and soup in one sitting.
The creation of bread into a bowl yields an important question: What to do with the insides?
I love the insides of bread and tend to just snack on them or save them to dip in my soup, but the insides can also be saved to make croutons or bread crumbs to be used in meatloaf or meatballs or just on top of a salad.
This recipe is a pretty standard bread recipe. It came together quickly and uses rapid rise yeast, so it rose in a short amount of time.
The recipe called for dividing it into six bowls, but the bowls were a little small for my taste, at least if the soup in a bread bowl is meant to be the main course. The six came out to a good side-dish size.
When I make these again for a main course, I’m going to make four.
Once the bread is all baked and cooled, it’s time to turn the buns into bowls. I’m a big fan of making a smaller opening in the top and scooping out as much around the sides. That way more soup will fit in the bowl.
I put my bread bowls in a bigger traditional bowl and purposely overfilled them, since that was supper, but they held the soup quite well before the overflow. That being said, it’s never a bad idea to plan for overflow in case the knife pokes through or tearing out the middle gets a little zealous.
Creamy soups, like broccoli cheese or tomato, go best in a bread bowl. A brothy soup will just soak in too much.
Practice hygge to the fullest and bake some bread bowls for that next batch of soup.
Bread bowls
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups warm water.
- 3/4 tablespoon instant (rapid rise) yeast.
- 2 tablespoons of honey.
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- 4 cups of bread flour, more or less as needed.
- 1 egg for an egg wash.
- 1 tablespoon of water.
Instructions
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the warm water, yeast, honey, oil, salt and two cups of flour, mix until well-combined.
- Add the remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is smooth, but still slightly tacky. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
- Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about one hour.
- Gently punch down the dough and divide into four to six equal pieces (four for larger bowls). Roll each piece of dough into a ball and place on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Cut an X in the top of each dough ball. Cover lightly with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes. During the last 15 minutes of rise time, preheat the oven to 400.
- Combine the egg and water and coat the buns with the egg wash for a shiny finish. Dust with coarse salt.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- To serve, cut a circle out of the top of the bread bowl, then scoop out the inside of the bread to make a bowl. Ladle hot soup into the bowl and serve immediately.
Recipe adapted from Lil Luna at https://lilluna.com/bread-bowl-recipe/.
