Pics of Soup Bowl

So as promised, I took pictures of my clam chowder in bread bowls, that we had for dinner last night. It was incredibly easy to make, since the longest part of preparation was peeling and slicing the potatoes. I had so many cut that I had to make two batches of stew. The first was the clam chowder, the second a regular beef stew. Either work well for bread bowls because you thicken them over what a simple soup would be.

The bread bowls were even less work, since I routinely use the dough button on my bread machine. It's a simple matter of putting together the bread recipe you like, letting the machine do all the work and then prepping the shape of the bread you want. Using a recipe that calls for 5-6 cups of flour, nets me about 4-6 decent sized bread bowls. I cut that down last night, making 8, since two were for the little girls who most likely weren't going to eat clam chowder. The bread bowls take about 25-30 minutes of baking in a 350 degree oven.

I'm going to be making these again really soon, since I promised a friend that I would prepare bread bowls for dip for her candle party. They will be smaller, but the process remains the same. So perhaps I'll do a step by step tutorial just for the fun of it.

The recipe was a plain white bread. I've used paprika onion bread for dips and it would make a nice accompaniment to a French Onion soup. I'm also planning on working on a garlic based bread, or Italian flavored.

I know not everyone enjoys it, but my family loves a good sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese melted on their clam chowder. Since the bowls had just come out of the oven and were still nice and warm when I started prepping them for serving, I added a sprinkling of shredded cheese in the base before I ladled the soup in. And then another sprinkle on top.

Don't worry if the chowder runs over, it's all part of the fun of eating it. If you find that the bread bowls aren't large enough for a serving for an adult, they can always ladle in more when they've eaten the first portion. The top can be dipped in the soup, or as my husband preferred, buttered and eaten alongside. And the kids just loved being able to tear their bowls apart to eat, having soaked up the flavor and thick broth of the soup.In fact, one of my little ones was snatching up the bread as soon as I pulled it from the inside of the bowl to munch on. She even tried to feed it to the cat. He was more interested in the clams, but he made a valiant effort of ignoring her in his special way, even as he begged at my feet under the table.