In case you’ve just crawled out from under a rock, somewhere, it’s snowing.  A lot.  It’s wonderful.  I’m loving every foot of it – and yes, it’s being measured in feet!

We’ve been eating well since this all began and have a few more fun meals coming up.

We had leftover Chicken Pot Pie for lunch today.  It was the perfect winter lunch.  And tonight, I’m making New England Clam Chowder – in Bread Bowls.

I was hunting through different bread books when I found this in the Bob’s Red Mill Cook Book.

I’ve never made it before but it seemed like it would compliment clam chowder well.

Buttermilk Bulgur Bread

  • 1 Tb Yeast, Active Dry
  • 3 Tb Honey
  • 1/2 cup Bulgur (ALA) from Hard Red Wheat
  • 1/3 cup Unsalted Butter, melted
  • 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
  • 2 Tb Cornmeal, Coarse Grind
  • 1/4 cup Warm Water (110 degrees)
  • 2 tsp Tomato Paste
  • 1-1/2 cups Buttermilk, warmed
  • 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
  • 2 cups White Flour, Unbleached

Place yeast in a large bowl. Cover with warm water; let stand until yeast begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add honey and tomato paste, and whisk until smooth. Stir in bulgur and buttermilk; let stand 20 minutes.

Stir the butter and salt into the bulgur mixture. Then stir in the whole wheat flour and about 1-1/2 cups unbleached white flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 15 minutes, adding more flour if necessary to keep dough from sticking. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume (about 1-1/2 hours).

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; punch down and divide in half. Roll and pull each half until it resembles a loaf of French or Italian bread.

Sprinkle a baking sheet with coarse cornmeal and place the loaves on the sheet. Brush loaves lightly with water; cover loosely with a towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 400F.

With a sharp knife, slash the surface of the loaves four or five times; brush again with water. Bake until crisp and hollow sounding when tapped with your finger, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

I made two individual bowl-sized boules and one large loaf.  I really should have used two ovens for this, but I didn’t.  The loaves were a bit cramped on the stone.  Oh well.  They may look a bit weird, but they look and smell great!

They should eb perfect foir the clam chowder and Victor made a Cannoli Cake for dessert.

I’m loving this weather!