Cheers!

When we visited Boston on our Silver Wedding trip to the USA in 2004, we naturally wanted to see the Cheers Bar from the TV show. We visited the place where the external shots were filmed.

Then we went to Faneuil Hall on Market Street, where there is a replica Cheers Bar. Bob chose to eat “Soup in a Bread Bowl” for his lunch.

At last, 10 years later, I have got round to making this at home. I found a recipe online, and used my breadmaker to make the dough.

Makes 4 ‘bowls’ – Prep 30 min, rising 2 x 40 min, cook 30 min

• 1 sachet easy blend yeast
• 300ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 440g bread flour
• 2 tsp polenta [cornmeal]
• 1 egg white [beaten with 1 tbsp water]

1. Make the dough with first six ingredients [by hand or in a machine] Let it rise 40 mins
2. Knock back, divide into 4 equal round loaves. Place on lightly greased baking sheet sprinkled with 1 tsp polenta. Allow to rise 40 mins, preheat oven to 200ºC
3. Brush loaves with half the egg wash, sprinkle with remaining tsp polenta.
4. Bake 15 mins, remove from oven, brush with remaining egg wash. Return to oven, bake further 10-15 mins till golden brown. Cool on wire rack
5. To make bowls, cut 1cm thick slice from top, scoop out centres, leaving 1.5cm shell [keep crumb for other purposes!]
6. Fill with soup, serve immediately.

Here’s the first two, filled with thick homemade carrot soup. The second two bowls were frozen, to be filled with chilli con carne. The bowls are about 5” across and hold a good portion of soup.

By the time you have eaten the soup with your spoon, the bowl has absorbed some of the moisture and is delicious to eat! They look spectacular – I think they’d make a good starter for a winter dinner party. They were certainly a more interesting way of serving ‘soup-and-a-roll’ for lunch.