Bread Bowls

You can use any bread recipe you want. I usually use this simple one:

Dissolve 2 packets of active yeast (4 1/2 t) in warm (~ body temp) water. Add one cup of all purpose flour and one cup of wheat flour. Mix until smooth.

Keep adding flour (alternating all purpose and wheat) and mixing until very hard to mix. (about 2-3 cups) Turn out on a floured board.

Knead until flour is smooth and not sticky - you will need to add more flour - another 1 1/2 - 2 cups, try to divide evenly between all purpose and whole wheat.

Roll the kneaded dough into a ball. Put in a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat the whole surface with oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubles (1 to 1 1/2 hours). Then punch down. Let rest 10 minutes. Divide into 4-6 smaller balls, and put them on cookie sheets. Flatten the balls into disks and let rise for about another hour.

If desired, brush with egg white (I usually don't) Cook at 375 for 40-50 minutes. Bread should sound hollow when thumped. Remove from oven and let cool.

Here's the tricky part. You will have 4-6 round loaves. Cut a circle out of the top of each loaf, and remove that piece of crust. You will have a thick crust bread with a circle of exposed softer bread. Smush down the inner part (you can scoop out the bread if you want to, but I prefer to leave the bread to soak up the gravy).

This works great for stews and chili. If you don't let the circles rise you should get flatter loaves for 'trenchers', but I haven't tried it yet.