Bread Bowls

There's nothing better than fresh bread and beef stew!

There's a fine line between a small bread bowl and a really big roll.  I made these bread bowls to accompany my husbands delicious beef stew.  The bread bowls were a tiny bit too small, but very delicious with the stew.  Garrett was the only one in the family who used it as a bowl for his stew.  The rest of us sliced our bowls and ate them with butter, like an oversized roll.  Either way, it was a wonderful meal on a cold March day.

I used the French bread recipe in my favorite bread book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.  The recipe calls for a pre-ferment step that adds to the flavor of the bread.  It's not nearly as tangy as my sour dough, but still more complex than a single proofing.  The flour is a 50/50 blend of all purpose flour and bread flour.  I'm not sure why the recipe calls for this (I should read the introduction to the recipe again...) but it makes a nice dough that forms into rolls or baguettes pretty well. 

Garrett with is bread bowl ready for stew.

My bread bowls ready to proof for the last time.

They are beautiful right out of the oven!