So the only picture I actually remembered to take of my entire event, was this pic of the breadbun soup bowls I prepped for the setup crew’s dinner on Feb 8th! I got so wrapped up in everything going on that I failed to take any further pictures at all! In fact, this pic was taken at home! Not at the event even!
Everyone kept commenting how this was such an ingenious idea, and some even thought I did the whole dinner from scratch. Amazing what a sale at Superstore coupled with a creative, improvising mind will be able to pull off! I credit God for ensuring the sale occurred the week I needed it too!
These bowls were made in the following manner:
1) Take a sharp knife, I used a steak knife. Place the bun on it’s flat bottom on your work surface and look at the top of the bun. You want to leave as much bun available as possible while obtaining the widest interior possible. So take the knife and begin slicing across the top of the bun, from the outermost edge you hope to ring your bowl, to the farthest edge you are after. Instructions I’ve located that talk about large bread bowls encourage leaving at least 1.5″ available as side walls and base. However, because these are dinner buns here, the best we can hope for is maybe a half inch to 3/4″ around the outside.
2) Once you’ve cut off the top, take the sharp knife and insert it at the inner edge of the bun now, beside the exposed soft interior. Be careful you don’t push the tip all the way to the bottom of the bun. Try to leave at least a half inch on the bottom to prevent leakage.
3) After you’ve cut all the way around the exposed softer bread, remove the knife and using clean fingers, pull out the “plug”. You’ll notice that the bread center will pull out at roughly the depth you had cut with your knife. Set the bread plug aside for use in dipping.
4) Pour some olive oil into a small to medum sized bowl, and liberally apply it to the interior of your bread bun soup bowl. I tried to use a basting brush for this and ended up using my fingers. I also lightly slathered some on the outside of the bun to seal it externally as well.
5) Place buns on cookie sheet and place in 350F oven for at least 15 minutes or until the bun turns golden. For my oven, that turned into 25 minutes.
The bun comes out very crispy inside and out. This allows for one or two servings of thin-broth soup, or 2 to 4 or more servings of cream or thick-broth soups. When the diner begins to notice the bun going soft, it’s time to eat the bun and grab another if they want more soup. The bread bun cores are great dippers to dip in your soup and enjoy, or to serve in other ways. Some people have chopped up the cores into cubes, spiced and then dried them for croutons. Others have cubed them for dipping in sauces.
Needless to say, these little bowls were an all-out hit for the setup crew! My grown kids like them too.