Here is my first challenge from "Fresh from the Oven". I noticed in August that they were baking the English Muffins from the River Cottage Bread book that I make all the time!
This month's challenge was Edible Bread Bowls from Richard Bertinet's book, Dough. (Thanks to Corry from bakeitoff.blogspot.com for setting the challenge!) I have to admit, this is one of the less well worn books in my bread book collection. It's full of beautiful photos and practical advice; but the recipes just don't seem to inspire me like my River Cottage bread book.
These soup bowls were an exception, though. I've had my eye on this page in the book for MONTHS. What more of an excuse did I need? Oooh - and the day the challenge was announced... wait for it.... I was already planning to make soup for dinner. It's like the stars had aligned, and the bread gods were cheering me on!
This is a super easy recipe. It's basic dough that you shape into bowls and bake. I had two major obstacles:
1) I can't roll dough into a circle to save my life. I just can't. How does one maintain a circle shape when the rolling pin goes back and forth in a straight line? I'm going back to Panary next week, and I'm going to demand Paul Merry gives me an hour long master class in rolling circles.
2) What to bake these bowls in?!? I don't have a lovely set of matching Le Creuset bowl shaped dishes, and I don't own more than one Pyrex dish in the same size.
So I rolled the dough out into oblong elephant shaped replicas of New Zealand. It was as close as I was going to get.
Then I checked the bottom of my Noritake soup bowls, and they said "Oven Safe", which was a relief, and quite scary at the same time. I actually put my normal everyday soup bowls into the oven. !!!! I stood back a bit when they came out.... it was fine.
Here's the final bread bowl with a lovely butternut squash and coriander soup in it. It held the soup better than I thought it would, and didn't soak through before we could eat it all. The outside was a little less smooth than in the book photo - perhaps I could have greased the bowls a little better? All in all, a fun experiment that I would probably try again! .... Once I know how to roll dough circles out properly.
