Bread Bowls

This recipe is from last week, when it was colder and not 80° like it is right now. Stupid weather. I wanted Panera so badly, but there isn't one anywhere around us. So, I decided to make my own bread bowls to put some soup in. I used this recipe and adjusted it to make 4 servings.

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast

1 & 1/4 c warm water

1 tsp honey

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

3 & 1/2 cups flour

1 egg

1 tsp water

Directions:
1. Put the yeast, honey and warm water in a bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes until it is creamy and foamy.

Before and After

 2. Add the salt, oil and 2 cups of flour to the bowl. Add in the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well.
3. When the dough has come together, put the mixer on high and let in knead for 6 minutes.

This is what it should look like once done.

4. Lightly oil the bowl and dough.

All lubed up.

5.Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rise for about 40 minutes.

6. After the dough has doubled in size, take it out and divide into 4 equal portions. Shape them into round loaves and place them on lightly greased baking sheets. Cover with the damp cloth and let rise again for about 35 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 400°.
8. Beat together egg and water to make an egg wash. Brush the loaves with the wash.
9. Bake the loaves for 15 minutes. Brush with egg wash again and put back in the oven to bake for 10-15 more minutes until golden brown.

Before the second egg wash

10. Take out and cool on wire racks.

All yummy and brown!

11. To make bowls, cut off the tops of loaves and scoop out the middle to create a bowl shape. 

Next time, I will probably just make two larger bowls, because the bowls were pretty small and didn't hold a lot of soup. They were very tasty though, and fairly easy to make. I will definitely be making this recipe again, and would recommend it for an easy bread bowl. 

I made a broccoli-cheddar soup to put in the bread bowls, and I used this recipe, which was amazing. I don't really even like broccoli-cheddar soup, but this one was tasty. The bread bowl worked perfectly and were a great addition to the soup. Overall, an excellent dinner.

Tomato Tortellini Soup

As the weather gets chillier around here, I'm craving more soup. That's a lie, I've been craving soup since mid-July, but now it's more appropriate to make it. I get home later on Wednesdays from work, and this soup was a great quick and easy meal.

I got most of the recipe for Taste Of Home and made some changes to make it work for me. I used less half-and-half cream, because two cups is a lot of that. It was still plenty creamy. I also didn't include the sun-dried tomatoes and added red pepper flakes instead.

Ingredients:

 1 package (9 ounces) refrigerated cheese tortellini 

2 cans (10 ounces each) tomato soup

2 cups chicken broth 

2 cups 2% milk 

1 cup half-and-half cream 

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper 

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

 

Directions: 

1. Boil your tortellini according to instructions. You could also easily use ravioli for this as well.

Tortellini looks like snails.

2. Heat up the tomato soup, chicken broth, milk, half-and-half, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. in a large pot. So basically everything except for the cheese.

Heating up the soup

3. Add the tortellini to the soup once it's hot and the tortellini are done. I used cheese tortellini, and I personally thought they were a little bland. I might try the kind with Prosciutto in them next time to add more flavor.

4. Add the Parmesan cheese to the warm soup and serve. Feel free to sprinkle extra Parmesan over the top as well.

Yum! Soup for two

I loved this recipe. It was super easy to make and tasted excellent. I even took some more in my lunch the next day, and it reheated very well. I will definitely be making this again.