Bianca Bread

[phathod]

I've been looking for a bread that makes a great snack and in my research and searching this is what I've found. It's simple, easy, and tastes great when dipped in soups or by itself.

Pizza Dough
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Your favorite Italian spices or spice mix

To prepare -
Preheat oven to 400-450
Roll your pizza dough out to about 1/2 inch thick and place on a lightly flowered baking sheet. Roll the sides up to create a small edge. Pour your olive oil onto the pizza and spread to create a light coating. Sprinkle with your favorite Italian spices and salt. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Pop it out and let it cool for a minute and then remove from baking sheet. Cut into Slices/Squares and serve!


The type of pizza dough you use is not extremely important. I prefer to use prepackaged instant pizza dough (add water, wait 10 minutes and it's ready.) I usually roll my dough out into a square and cut it into squares. I like a little mix of Thyme, Oregano, and Basil for my seasoning. Im debating on if I should modify this a little to better suit my diabetic mother because white bread is bad for her. If I do i'll post up my new version.

Hope you guys enjoy!

[The Ironic Chef]

I make something very similar to this called Focaccia. I coat the top of my dough with a lot of olive oil, 2 large caramelized onions, crushed garlic and thyme, salt and pepper and more olive oil, lol. I bake it so the toppings are a nice golden brown. My kids call it a sauce less pizza.
I'm sure a whole wheat version would be excellent too. Good luck with your mom. Bread is a hard thing to give up on with diabetics.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

I love Foccacia Bread!!!

What do you feel would be the best bread to make for a bowl? You know you serve the soup, etc. in the bread hollowed out slightly to make a bowl.

The very best Foccacia I ever had was at a restaurant I used to got to in Carmel, CA in the winter I would get their Soup and Foccacia Bread for my lunch and oh my how it warmed me physically, & emotionally!!! This was an Italian restaurant that had a fire place and a cozy warm fire roaring and the apmoshere was just like the warmth of a visit home to the old world to see Grandma & Grandpa!

I loved our 2 hour lunch breaks...after a great lunch I used to wander in and out of all the little tourist shops and I just enjoyed my lunches tremendously. There was also a health food Restaurant that had the best sandwiches in all the whole world, and all these healthy fresh juice drinks, I used to eat a sandwich there and get a shot glass of wheat grass juice and I would just feel so charged and healthy it was fantastic!!! Another really great restaurant has a dish that I will never forget it was a pasta/chicken breast/white cheese cream sauce w/ small amount of diced tomatoes and topped with melted white cheese & capers!!! To DIE FOR! I never will forget that meal! Carmel, CA was a two yr. working vacation for me a beautiful place to visit and such good restaurants!!! The best grilled dill/swordfish sandwich I ever put in my mouth was at a restaurant there over-looking the Pacific Ocean! Well........I am so glad for the memories!

I did not mean to get strung out but I love bread and good food, it amazes me how some meals and dining experiences are so over the top you never forget them!

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Great idea, Justin!

Healthy, delicious and creative!

[The Ironic Chef]

Cathy, we have a place here called the Atlantic Bread Company. It's actually a restaurant and it serves it's soups and stews in bread bowls. I see that the Red Lobster is doing it too. I had to try it myself because I really enjoyed myself with soup in that fashion. I actually made my regular dough for one loaf of bread and let it rise once. I then made four balls for the bowls. I made the balls just as you would for a biscuit but a bit larger of course.I let the dough rise for about an hour , coated the tops with an egg wash and then I baked them in an oven at 450 degrees. They turned out excellent. I made a batch from sour dough and enjoyed them even more because the sour dough really went well with the potato soup I put into them. Just make sure to roll the dough into really tight balls and seal the bottoms really well.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Thanks for the really good bread bowl tips IC!

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Yep- the sourdough boule bread bowls are indeed delish- AND a fun way to serve/present soups and chowders. Back in the 90's at Kenai Princess Lodge in Cooper Landing, AK we served our smoked salmon-corn chowder in the bread bowls and they were hugely popular! YUM!

We also served a bar appetizer that was called "The Sicilian Loaf", and it was Italian Plum Tomatoes, assorted exotic mushrooms, torn basil and a few cheeses all stuffed into one of the boules, baked until bubbly and then carted off to the bar for folks to enjoy w/ their booze. Another popular item- kinda like a huge round basketball-shaped PIZZA!