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Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread Bowls

Bread bowl with broccoli cheese soup on a white plate
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Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread Bowls ready and waiting for all your favorite soups!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 ½ cups (18 oz) white whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups (8.5 oz) white all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup wheat gluten
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons yeast
  • 3 cups room temperature water

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, mix together flours, wheat gluten, salt, and yeast.
  2. Add the water, and with your hands, mix until the majority of the flour is incorporated, but the dough is still a slightly shaggy looking ball.
  3. Note:  If the dough is still quite wet and sticky, sprinkle an extra tablespoon or two of white flour on top and gently fold it in.  You want the dough to be tacky, but not so wet and sticky that it coats your hands when you’re working the flour in.
  4. Place on top of a piece of parchment paper and lift it into the Instant Pot liner.
  5. Secure the lid.  Press yogurt, then adjust until the screen reads LOW.  Adjust time to 4:00 and wait for the beep to indicate the cycle has started.
  6. After 4 hours, the dough will have puffed up a bit and have small bubbles on top.  Grab the sides of the parchment to lift the dough out of the pot and place it on the counter.
  7. Sprinkle flour on your work surface.  Flip a sheet pan upside down and line it with parchment paper; keep it close by.  
  8. Scrape dough onto the flour (it will be sticky, that’s okay) and toss it in the flour a bit so it doesn’t stick to the counter.
  9. Cut dough into 5 or 6 equal sized pieces.
  10. Form each piece of dough into tight, round balls, sprinkling them with extra flour if they are too sticky to handle.  Tip: Once you smooth the dough into a ball, pinch the extra dough at the bottom so they will keep their shape better. Place each ball onto the parchment lined, upside down sheet pan.
  11. Cover the dough with greased plastic wrap and allow them to rise for 45 minutes.  
  12. While the dough rises, place a large, rectangular pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven (see notes if you don’t have a rectangle pizza stone).  Place a metal pan (like a 9×13 brownie pan) on the lower rack of the oven as well. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
  13. When the dough is ready, carefully slide the parchment paper (with the rolls) from the sheet pan onto the pizza stone in the oven.  Pour 1 cup of water into the metal pan and quickly shut the oven to trap the steam inside.
  14. Bake for 25 minutes until the bread is deeply browned and crisp all over.
  15. Remove the bread bowls from the sheet pan and place on a cooling rack.  This will keep the bottoms of the bread from going soft.
  16. For serving, cut off the top of the bread bowl.  Scoop out the center of the roll and set it aside for dipping.  Fill bread bowl with a creamy soup. Thin soups will soak into the bread too quickly and disintegrate the roll.

Notes

  • If you don’t have a large rectangle pizza stone, but have a large round one, preheat your round pizza stone the same way.  Line a sheet pan as you normally would (not upside down) then when it’s time to bake the rolls, place the entire sheet pan on top of the pizza stone to bake.  
  • If you don’t have a pizza stone at all, simply bake the rolls on a sheet pan.  They won’t get as crispy on the bottom, but they will still be good.
  • I suggest weighing the flour for the most accuracy.
  • If the dough is too sticky when forming the balls, add extra white flour until you can easily handle and shape them.
  • For larger bowls, divide dough into 5 pieces.  For smaller bowls, divide dough into 6 pieces.
  • You can use all white flour if desired.  100% white whole wheat flour is quite dense.
  • I never use red wheat.  It is strong in flavor and will make heavy, dense rolls.
  • The wheat gluten in the recipe helps the dough to stay light.
  • For soup, I like to hollow out the roll, spritz with olive oil, then place under the oven broiler to crisp the insides a bit.  This keeps it from going soft too quickly once the soup is added.
  • The bread bowls will lose the crispy crust after sitting at room temperature for a few hours.  Throwing them under the oven broiler for a few minutes will bring back the crusty exterior.

Find it online: https://instafreshmeals.com/whole-wheat-bread-bowls/