Reciplace

Fresh from the oven: Edible Bread Bowls

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.

Homemade Pasta

Dried pasta from a bag just doesn't compare to homemade pasta.  Hell, even the fresh pasta from Waitrose, dahling doesn't come close. 

When you start baking bread all the time, pasta becomes the next logical step.  Take away the yeast, add an egg instead, and you've got a beautiful loaf of pasta.

I love making my own pasta.... but I haven't bought a pasta machine yet.  I really want an Imperia (the ONLY one worth buying, they say).  But ever since Graphic Foodie found one in a charity shop window, I keep stalling, hoping one day I too will stumble across a pristine Imperia, waiting for me to rescue it at silly price.  So far no luck. 

So, without a machine, here I am, an abomination against Italians everywhere, making up my own pasta shape!  I've googled it, it doesn't exist!  I confirmed with Italian friends (who have probably now placed a hit against me)!

So here I have these little rectangle shapes.  Normally I'd try to slice them into long linguine type strips, but those always just get tangled up and rip.  It's a weeknight.  I don't want to do anything fancy.  Rectangles are the way forward.  Rectanglini - that's what I'll call them! 

Sorry, Italians.  I know I've sinned.  But honestly, they still taste fantastic!  Here they are with some veg-box leftovers and some gorganzola. Deliziosa!