Bread Bowls

I love bread bowls with a tasty soup in the center of them. I remember going to a small little cafe by my high school and ordering cheese and broccoli soup in a bread bowl every time I went. It was a favorite of mine. When I came across a local bread store here in town I started to  purchase them from there. But let  be honest here... When you are paying a dollar something per bread bowl and need more than 5 to feed your family it sure adds up quick. There has always been something about making bread bowls has always been really intimidating to me. I knew I was going to be making some soup and when I stumbled across this recipe I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I figured worse case scenario is they turn out horrible and I could run down the street to the store and pick some up. To my surprise they were really easy to make and taste just as good, if not better than the ones from the bread store.  

Bread Bowls-Makes 12

Recipe from Chef-in-training.com

Ingredients:

5 cups warm water

2 Tbsp yeast

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup oil

2 Tbsp salt

12-14 cups flour

Directions:

In the bowl of your kitchen aid or bosch combine warm water, yeast and sugar. Let sit for 10 minutes. (Make sure your water isn't too hot or it will kill your yeast not allowing your bread to rise. If the yeast gets bubbly then its active.) Add oil salt and 3 cups of flour to your yeast mixture. Mix on low speed. Continue adding the flour 1 cup at a time until you reach 10 cups. Turn to high speed and continue adding the rest of the flour. Do not exceed 14 cups of flour. Once the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl and cling to the middle you will let it knead for 6 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces. The dough is a little sticky so it works best if you sprinkle it with a little bit of flour to prevent it from sticking to your hands. Roll the dough into balls and place on your cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size. If your in a hurry turn your oven on to 200 degrees, let it warm up for one minute then turn it off and place your baking sheets with the dough balls inside. This will allow the dough to rise faster. Once the dough balls have doubled in size bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool, cut out the center and fill with your favorite soup. If you don't want as many bread bowls you can always cut the recipe in half.