No Soup for You!

 

Using your paddle attachment on your mixer (or large rubber spatula), mix in your salt, garlic powder, italian seasoning, and 2 cups of the flour.  Mix until a doughy consistency has formed.  Now add in your remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well in between additions.  I had to use all my remaining flour, but you may not.  Just watch that your dough looks tacky, but not overly sticky.

At this point, turn off the mixer and switch to a dough hook.  Mix on medium speed for 4-6 minutes.  This is kneading the dough.  It will spiral and pull away from the sides of the bowl, kind of slapping around hitting the sides as it kneads/mixes.  It will look smooth and elastic when you are finished

If you’re not using a stand mixer, you would turn out your dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand for 6 minutes or so until it becomes smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil (I use cooking spray) a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, turn to coat in the oil, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and place in a warm spot in your kitchen to rise for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.  For me, my warm spot in my kitchen is my microwave, yours may be different.  I’ve heard that if your kitchen is drafty, you can fill a bowl with boiling water and place the bowl and your bowl of covered dough in the oven (oven off).  The steam from the hot water will create a good environment for your dough to rise.  I may try this trick next time 🙂

So for 40 minutes you can just relax for a little bit.  I usually clean up, then hop on facebook or run some laundry.  When it’s been 40 minutes, go check your dough, it should look like this…

Now is a fun part… remove dough from the bowl, place it on a lightly floured surface, and you get to punch the dough down.  Literally.  Punch it a couple times.  Feels good doesn’t it?  Hehe.  Okay, after you’ve punched it down, divide into 4 equal portions.  Take each section and form into a ball.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or grease it), and sprinkle with your cornmeal.  Place the balls of dough onto the baking sheet, cover, and let rise again, for about 35 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Beat your egg white with water until frothy.  Bake your rolls for 15 minutes, then brush with the egg wash mixture.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown on top.  Cool on wire racks.

To make them into bowls, simply cut about 1/2″ off the tops of the rolls, scoop out most of the insides, and ta-da… a bread bowl!  Don’t toss those insides, either use for dipping or put into a ziploc bag and save to make breadcrumbs later 🙂

Now that the bowls are done, we need some soup to put in them!  I decided on broccoli cheese soup…. yum!  I found a recipe I wanted to start with HERE but of course, I added my own zing to it.

Slowly whisk in the half and half and chicken stock. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  If you don’t have half and half or wanted to try regular milk, I think that would probably work too.

Add the broccoli, carrots, and onions. Let them simmer on medium low for about 25 minutes until the broccoli and carrots are tender.

Add paprika, garlic powder ground dry mustard, salt and pepper and sharp cheddar cheese.

Let the cheese melt.  If you like a smoother soup, transfer to food processor or blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy your soup!