Sourdough is probably my favorite bread, and I’ve always liked soups or chili served in sourdough bowls. For some reason, though, up until this month, it had never occurred to me to try to make one myself–it was always one of those special treats reserved for visits to restaurants. Earlier this month, we were trying to come up with a meal to pay tribute to the two Super Bowl teams. We came up with Maryland Crab Soup for the Baltimore Ravens, and for San Francisco, we chose sourdough bread (in a close vote over Rice-a-Roni…). To make it more interesting, we decided rather than just serving a roll on the side, we’d make it a sourdough bowl instead!
I looked around online, and found a few variations on the process, all of which looked simple enough to do myself. It turned out perfectly, and was quite easy to make. In the end, while the Maryland Crab Soup was tasty, it probably was not the best choice for a bread bowl–clear broths soak in to the bread too quickly. But we do intend to make them again with one of our chilis or possibly a chowder, or maybe our split pea with ham soup.
Random note: Did you know sourdough boule is not a fancy way to say bowl? It’s actually French for “ball”, which is the type of bread you need to make a bowl. The more you know…
- 1 or more 6-inch sourdough boules
- Butter, olive oil, or olive oil spray
- Slice the top inch or top third of sourdough boule.
- With a paring knife, cut a circle about a half inch from the edge all the way around the boule, being careful not to penetrate the bottom.
- Gently remove the bread disc from inside the boule.
- Brush the inside with melted butter or olive oil, or spray with olive oil spray.
- Place on aluminum foil or a baking pan.
- Bake for 12-20 minutes, or until bread bowl begins to brown.
- Fill with chowder, chili or other thick soup (clear, thin broths tend to get soaked up in the bread).
*PointsPlus are based on calculations for a Panera sourdough bread bowl.
Calculate extra Points if you eat the scooped out bread as well (2 PointsPlus per ounce).
I thought this would be about how to make the bread bowls from scratch, not how to cut tops off and put soup inside, lol
Ummmm….what temperature?