Have your bowl and eat it too...

While on a short weekend away to celebrate Steve's birthday, we stopped at a small café for lunch.
He wanted to have soup in a bread bowl, but they didn't have the kind of soup he wanted in such a vessel. So, he chose another of their delicious options and I promised to make him the soup he wanted in a bread bowl made from sourdough bread.
What could be better than eating your soup and then having every last drop already sopped up in the bowl you cab eat?!
The secret to a good bread bowl is to have a loaf that has a thick crust with a soft inside...which is a good quality in general for bread. To make the bowl, hollow out the middle without going all the way through to the sides or bottom. Keep what you pull out to make croutons or stuffing
Of course, you don't have to use this bread to make a bowl, you can enjoy it as a basis for sandwiches or just slather it with butter or pile it high with cheese or tomatoes from the garden.


Sourdough Bread
for bowls or whatever else you want

  • 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
  • 3 1/2 cups of warm (not hot) water, divided
  • 7 cups of flour, divided
  • 1/4 cup of nonfat dry milk powder
  • 2 tablespoons of butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • Cornmeal for dusting
  • •In a 4-qt. non-metallic bowl, dissolve the yeast in 2 cups of warm water and let stand for 5 minutes.
  • •Stir in 2 cups of the flour until it's all smooth.
  • •Cover the bowl loosely with a clean towel and let stand in a warm place (80º or more) to ferment for 48 hours. Stir this starter dough several times daily.
  • •After two days, stir in the milk powder, the butter, the sugar, the salt, the rest of the water and enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough
  • •Do not knead this dough, just cover the bowl again and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled again - about 1-1/2 hours.
  • •Turn the dough onto a floured surface and punch the dough down. Again, do not knead it.
  • •Divide this big bowl of dough in half and shape each half into a round loaf. Heavily grease a couple of baking sheets and sprinkle them with cornmeal.
  • •Put the dough onto the pans. Cover and let them rise until they've doubled again, which will take about 30 minutes.
  • •With a sharp knife, make three diagonal cuts across the tops of each of the loaves.
  • •Bake at 350º for 10 minutes. Brush the loaves with cold water and put them back in the oven to bake for another 35-40 minutes.

Vegetarian.

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