BREAD BOWLS - from trenchers to naan breads

Or: From trenchers, through bread bowls, and pizzas (with a nod to the focaccia) to naans…

I call my blog “No bread is an island”, since I maintain that every bread is linked to at least one other.

The rolls I’ve just made (and turned into bread bowls) exemplify that.

Here’s the recipe for the bread: 

100g (4oz) each strong white flour and strong wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder

1/2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs

1 dessertspoon pesto (optional)

1 dessertspoon curry paste (optional)

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast stirred into 125g lukewarm water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method:

Mix into a dough using a stiff palette knife or a table knife. Once it forms into a dough, get your hands in. Add more flour or water as needed to obtain a soft, squeezable dough. Place on the worktop (without flour) and knead (flatten and fold) for about 30 seconds. If it needs more flour, add some back in the bowl, then bring it out and knead a little more.

Divide in 2 and shape each piece into a large roll. My method is to place the rolls into a stainless steel roasting dish with baking parchment above and below, then a baking tray over the top, so that the rolls, as they rose, would flatten out.

When they’d risen sufficiently (which didn’t take long since I’d used loads of yeast), I baked these at 210C (425F). After 10 minutes the bottoms were well done (I wanted the bottoms to be really well cooked). Then I removed the baking tray and turned the rolls over, giving them about 8 minutes this time.

Nice and flat on top

I then carefully cut around the top of one, hacked out most of the crumb and, for my dinner, had this filled with leftover bolognaise sauce (to which I’d added red kidney beans, chunks of seitan and curry sauce) and had this with oven chips. 

I tried to leave a 1cm thick edge all the way round

This was well worth doing. The bread was so tasty, that for supper last night I hacked out the top of the second roll, removed the crumb and ate it on its own. (I can’t recall ever doing that before!) The second bowl I had for lunch today - again filled with curry.

I want to try these again with a more liquid filling. Not really a soup fan, but I'll happily experiment in the interests of science!