Bread Bowls

Yesterday I attempted to make homemade bread bowls! They turned out amazing! I just found a simple recipe online (allrecipes.com) and went to town. They were scrumptious.

Bread Bowls

• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees)
• 1 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• Cornmeal

1. In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, sugar, eggs, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
2. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into eight pieces; shape each into a ball. Grease two baking sheets and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place four balls 3 in. apart on each prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.
3. For bread bowls, cut a thin slice off the top of bread. Hollow out bottom half, leaving a 1/4-in. shell (discard removed bread or save for another use). Fill with chili, chowder or stew.

I think that next time I will use half white and half wheat flour and see how it goes!

I coupled these yummy bowls with a creamy corn chowder. I'm not going to post the corn chowder recipe just yet because it needs a little bit of tweaking for our taste, although it was delicious.