Bread Bowls

I felt like playing with bread and making a somewhat fancy yet simple and satisfying dinner, so I made bread bowls to serve Chicken a la King in.

Ingredients:
6 cups bread flour
2 envelope Fleischmann’s RapidRise Yeast
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon sugar
1-1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon water
1 cup milk
2 tablespoon butter

Instructions:

Combine flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl; make a well at the center. Heat water, milk and butter to between 120º to 130ºF. Pour into the well and gradually stir into flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally, until a soft dough is formed.

Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface; knead 6 to 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover dough and let rest 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 4 (or 5, in my case, about 10 oz each) equal portions; shape each into smooth ball. Place on greased baking sheet. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

With sharp knife (I use a new blade for cutter, greased with shortening), make 4 (1/4-inch deep) slashes (swiftly!) in crisscross fashion on top of loaves. Bake at 375ºF for 20 to 25 minutes or until done. Remove from baking sheet; cool on wire rack.

Cut off 1/3 of loaf; hollow out loaf to form 1/4-inch thick bowl. Fill bowl with soup.[Actually, I cooked chicken a la king for this. Recipe up next.]

All the boys said, "Kewl!"