Awesome Soup #12 Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Broccoli and Cheese Soup

After looking through the Soup Bible Mike decided he would make broccoli and almond Soup. I read the description and said, “Mike, this doesn’t have cheese in it and anyhow the last one we made with blended almonds in it ,came out very gritty in texture and I didn't like that very much” So, the challenge was on and in another of our beautiful cook books, (did I tell you that we have a whole cupboard of them) he found a neat recipe for one of my favorite restaurant style soups, broccoli and cheese.

We are so glad he made this one as it turned out to be really delicious. A hot thick, cheesy soup with pieces of fresh green broccoli and mushroom. Just lovely. Mike gave it a 9.5 and I ,a 9.9.

I decided as we were not expecting company, I would try again with the French bread but this time,I would cook the dough in the regular oven rather than in the bread machine and see if I could get the right French loaf shape. The good thing was the bread again tasted lovely- crusty on the outside and crumbly on the inside, the shape however was a big problem.

 Let me explain. After the bread is mixed you roll out the dough into a long thin shape , then leave it to rise before you bake it. Well my long thin shape was too long for both my baking tray and indeed for the oven so I had to bend it into a C shape. It rose and rose and was a true dinosaur of a loaf. The recipe also tells you to score the top just before baking. Well that doesn't work as when you do that 'pouf' the air deflates the dough and the loaf sags looking more like a balloon version of a dinosaur. Oh dear. All a good learning experience.

We opened a nice bottle of Crane Lake Pino Grigio and talked about what soup we might cook next time, how nice the daffodils looked, how the latest woodshed project was progressing and the perennial topic,” Where should we go for our next trip.”

It was a good soup day.