How to Make Bread Bowls

In the Middle ages, people were served food on thick slices of stale bread, and would eat their food, breaking off pieces of their bread. Keeping with that tradition, bread bowls are a popular recipe. They are an ingenious and delicious method to serve soups, dips, and gravy dishes, irrespective of the cuisine.

Bread bowls are round loaves with the top cut off to resemble a bowl. Soups with a thin base cannot be served in bread bowls as the bread tends to get soggy. Nowadays, restaurants like Tim Horton's, Quizno's, and Domino's pizza have added bread bowls to their menu.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon, cornmeal
• 6 cups, all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons, salt
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup, sugar
• ½ cup, shortening
• 1 cup, warm milk (110-115 °F)
• 1 cup, warm water (110-115 °F)
• 2 packages, active dry yeast

Directions
In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, sugar, eggs, salt, and 2 cups flour to it. Beat the mixture until it turns smooth. Use the remaining flour to form a soft dough. Knead it on a floured surface for 6-8 minutes until smooth. Place it in a greased bowl, turn the dough in the bowl so that it's greased all over.

Cover for 1 hour. Punch the dough down. On a floured surface, divide into 8 pieces, and shape each into a ball. Grease two baking sheets and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Place 4 balls on each prepared sheet and cover for 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 °F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Leave it to cool. Cut a thin slice off from the top of the bread and hollow out the bottom half, leaving a ¼ inch thick shell.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon, cornmeal
• 2/3 cup, water
• 1 cup, all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons, baking powder
• ¼ cup, butter
• ¼ cup, grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Grease a 9-inch round baking pan, sprinkle it with cornmeal. Mix water and butter in a saucepan over heat and bring to boil. Add the flour, Parmesan cheese, and baking powder, and stir. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the eggs, one by one, till the mixture is smooth and shiny.

Spoon the mixture into the greased pan and bake at 425 °F for 25-30 minutes, until the center is firm and puffed, and the edges are a golden brown. Make a small slit in the center to allow steam to escape.

Let it cool for a few minutes, then move it to a serving plate. This recipe shows us how to bake bread bowls that are cheesy in taste, and so can be filled with chili or potato soup or even chowder.

Ingredients

• Frozen white bread dough
• 1 tablespoon, butter
• Baking tray

Directions
Thaw the dough to room temperature. Grease the baking tray with butter. Divide the dough into 12 chunks and roll them into balls, then, place them on the tray. Leave the dough for an hour, so that it doubles in size. Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Put the balls into the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Leave them to cool. Cut a large, round hole in the top and scoop some of the bread underneath, leaving at least a ½-inch of bread in the bowl.

Ingredients

• Round loaf of bread
• Olive oil
• Basting brush

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Cut ½-inch off the top of the load with a knife. Remove bread on the inside, leave about 1½ inches thickness on the inside. Brush olive oil on the inside of the bread bowl. Bake bowl for 15 minutes until golden on the inside. You can also save the top, brush olive oil underneath, bake it along with the bowl, and now you have a lid for your bread bowl.