Cheese Soup in Homemade Bread Bowls

Rather silly, I suppose, but one of my enduring memories of the Minnesota Renaissance Fair is the cheese soup in a bread bowl. Back in college it was a fall ritual to road trip from Superior down to Shakopee and spend a day roaming around the fair grounds. We didn’t have much money, but everyone pitched in for gas and the shows on the grounds were free. Puke and Snot were a perennial favorite. They had a wide variety of foods, but cheese soup in a bread bowl was something I almost always indulged in. I hadn’t had any in years, until the winter of 2007-2008 when I saw it on the menu at a local restaurant. It was so good that I really wanted to have it again, but we don’t go out to eat very often, so I figured why not make it at home? Enter the internet. I love online recipe searches.

For the soup I used the following recipe from All Recipes.com.

Wisconsin Cheese Soup recipe

INGREDIENTS

* 5 tablespoons butter
* 2 carrots, chopped
* 2 stalks celery, chopped
* 1 green bell pepper, chopped
* 1 onion, chopped
* 5 button mushrooms, chopped
* 1/2 cup chopped ham
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 4 cups chicken broth
* 4 cups milk
* 1/2 teaspoon paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
* 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
* salt to taste
* ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large heavy kettle, melt butter or margarine. Add carrots, celery, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, and ham; cook over medium heat until vegetables are crisp tender, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not brown.

2. Stir in flour and cornstarch; cook, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes. Add broth and cook, stirring, until slightly thickened (I prefer to cook it until quite thick). Add milk, paprika, cayenne, and mustard.

3. Stir in cheese gradually, stirring until cheese is melted. To avoid curdling, do not allow soup to boil after cheese is added. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve piping hot.

I usually swap out sweet corn for the mushrooms and bell pepper and add extra carrots. Sometimes I use the ham, sometimes not, it depends on what I have on hand.

For the bread bowls I normally use the basic French bread recipe from my bread machine. I use the dough cycle and then divide it into four portions, shape it into rounds and let it rise until doubled. Brush with salt water glaze. Bake at 400F for around 15 minutes, until lightly browned.

French Bread Recipe for Homemade Bread Bowls

1 1/4 cup warm water
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 TBSP yeast

Glaze:
2 TBSP water
1/2 tsp salt

As you can see, the boys are fans. The bread was still so warm from the oven it was tough to cut it into bowl shapes, but they were so hungry, mom!

And here’s my bowl. You can tell by Duncan’s eye rolling in the last shot that he was tired of taking pictures. There was enough soup left for another meal the next day, but I had to bake more bread because the bowls were gone without a trace. The bread machine is our friend. I can be out in the garden while it mixes away. I hope you give this a try sometime. It’s a special treat for us, but oh so good!