Edible bowls

Every time I bake bread, I have been wanting to bake big, round buns to use as a bowl for soups or stews.  I have been baking bread using a recipe I came across on tv a few months back.  The breads always turn out crusty and the inside is nice and soft.  That made me think that these would be great as bread bowls for soups.

Since Pete was going to make chili, I thought that these bread bowls would be perfect to serve them in.  The bread was not difficult to make.  A quick mix of bread flour, salt, yeast, oil and water and then a therapeutic 10 minute kneading was all it took to make the dough.  When it has risen enough, I formed two big buns, as round as I could manage.  With the rest of the dough, I made small and big buns and stuffed some with cheese.

I love baking bread simply because it makes the whole house smell like a bakery while it is in the oven.  And when the breads are ready and I take them out of the oven, the smell intensifies and it takes a whole lot of will not to tear into one straight away to devour them with generous slathers of good butter.

The round buns came out perfect.  I let them cool and let the crust get nice and crispy.  By the time we were ready to break our fast, the buns have cooled and ready to be turned into bowls.  I cut the tops off and spooned out the inside, leaving a nice shell with enough room for a nice serving of chili.  The bread bowls were sturdy enough to hold the chili and they looked so pretty. 

When we got down to eating, the bread was a very good accompaniment to the spicy chili.  We really loved it and devoured the whole thing.  Pete picked up the bowl and started eating it like a giant chili dog, except it was without the hot dog.  I thought it was outrageous but I gave it a go and realised immediately that it made sense.  The bottom of the bowl was soaked with the flavours of the chili and the outside was still crusty.  We both finished the entire thing and got so full!  I'm going to make the bread bowls again when I make stews and soups in future.

Oh, and I found another use for the blueberries and currants.  I found a recipe called 'to die for blueberry muffins' and decided to make a batch.  They looked and smelled good.  But when we found some room to have dessert later, the muffins were a let down.  The texture was too heavy, it wasn't sweet at all and there wasn't much flavour.  But the berries gave a lovely sour tang to each bite - I used a lot.  I wished I could have used them in a better recipe.  Such a waste of the berries!