While it's not a bread recipe, it's a great way to use up stale bread, especially heels. Very little prep time, very yummy results. Excellent for winter nights. It's a spanish-inspired bread and garlic soup, Sopa de Ajo!

For 4-6 people you will need:

8 cups vegetable or chicken broth

as many whole eggs as you have people

a 1/2 cup of stale, cubed bread (I use cubes about 1.5 inches on a side, including crust)

8 cloves garlic 

1 T paprika (smoked is nice if you can find it)

2 T olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and slice the garlic thinly. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a stock pot or Dutch oven until the oil shimmers. Add the garlic and saute, stirring frequently, until the garlic is fragrant, soft and just barely beginning to brown, about 2-3 minutes. Add the paprika and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the broth and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once the soup has reached a boil, turn it down to  a gentle simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Crack the eggs into the simmering broth -- you are going to poach them. Cook until the eggs have reached your desired level of done-ness (I like 'em hard, but that's not traditional -- really, I think poached softly is probably  more traditional). 

Divide the cubed stale bread between the bread bowls. Spoon a poached egg into each bowl, atop the bread cubes. Ladle the broth over the top and serve immediately. 

Makes a delicious, warming, comforting soup, and takes less than 15 minutes to prepare. 

Enjoy!

P.S. Mods, I know it's not strictly bread, but it's made with bread... please feel free to move to a more appropriate forum if one exists. thanks!

Yield 3-5 servings

1/4 lb. ground beef

2 Tbsp. taco seasoning mix (more if needed to taste)

1-2 tsp. ranch dressing mix (optional)

1 tsp. onion powder

1 cup canned, diced tomatoes, undrained

1/4 -1/2 cup corn

1 cup kidney beans

1 cup black beans

1/4 cup water if mixture is too thick

Topping Ideas

cheese, olives, green onions, sour cream, tortilla chips

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, brown ground beef over medium heat, stir and break up meat as it cooks.  Drain grease from meat using strainer. 

2. Add remainder of ingredients.  When mixture comes to a boil turn temperature down to simmer.  Cover and simmer for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

3. Serve over corn chips in a bowl.  Add toppings.

I know this site is all about the bread but there's nothing better than a wedge of sourdough and this velvety onion soup.  I like this recipe for bunch of reasons.  It's cheap, consists of only a few basic ingredients, only dirties one pot and it's almost impossible to get wrong.  And did I mention it's delicious?

I based my recipe off of the classic Julia Child version.

• 1 1/2 pounds thinly sliced onions
• 3 slices bacon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 quart beef broth
• 1 quart water
• 1/2 cup white wine

Cook the bacon in the bottom of a heavy bottomed pot.  After it's good and crispy take out the bacon and reserve for later.  Throw in the onions, cook on medium for 10 minutes stirring frequently.  Throw in the salt and sugar, continue to cook stirring constantly until the onions are all a uniform dark brown goodness.  Add the flour, cook for three minutes.  Add the wine, broth and 1 quart of water, cook for 30-40 minutes. 

Hack a wedge of bread, put some of the cooked bacon on top, maybe a handful of shredded swiss, and say goodbye to that winter chill.

Sour Rye Bread (Norm's formula) with Krupnik

 Krupnik is an Eastern European beef and barley soup that is a meal in itself, with some good rye bread. There are many versions. Mine is an old family recipe, although I have seen almost identical versions in Jewish cookbooks. Unlike the version Floyd makes, mine is strictly meat - no milk products, since it is a Jewish version. I know that it has been altered somewhat from generation to generation, depending mostly on the tastes of family members. The version I will give is as close to that my maternal grandmother made as I can remember.

Recipe for Krupnik

•  1 lb lean chuck trimmed of fat and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 carrots cut into 1 inch long pieces
• 2 stalks celery cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup dried brown lentils
• 2/3 cup pearled barley
• 1/2 cup dried baby lima beans (optional)
• 1/2 cup dried navy beans (optional)
• 1 large russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice.  (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste (I like lots of pepper, but each person can add this at the table to personal preference.)
• 2 bay leaves
• Water to cover ingredients by 2 inches. Plan on adding more as barley and lentils swell to achieve a thick but not solid final consistency. 

• When I was a child, I hated beans in this soup, so, for many years my mother omitted them. My tastes changed as an adult, and I now put them in. 
• My grandmother used a variety of cuts of beef, often short ribs. As we have tried to cut down on fat in our diet, I began using top chuck.
• My wife's grandmother made krupnik with lamb rather than beef. We have made it this way many times, using lamb neck, and it is equally delicious.
• Many recipes also add some dried porcini/cepes. I love mushroom-barley soup, but I don't put mushrooms in krupnik.
• My wife likes krupnik with some tomato, so we now usually add a small can of coarsely chopped tomatoes. This is definitely not traditional, however.

1. Trim and cube chuck and place in a 8-10 quart soup pot. Add 3 quarts of water. Bring to a gentle boil and skim any scum that rises to the surface. 
2. Turn the fire down to achieve a steady simmer and simmer for 1 hour.
3. While the meat is simmering, cut up the onion, carrots and celery (and optional potato) and measure out the other ingredients.
4. After the meat has simmered for 1 hour, add all the other ingredients and additional water, as needed.
5. Cook at a steady simmer, stirring frequently for 1-2 hours until the beans are completely cooked and the meat is very tender. Add water to thin it if the soup is getting too thick. When thick, it tends to stick to the bottom of the pot if not stirred very frequently.
6. Adjust seasoning to taste.
7. Serve with  rye or pumpernickel or other bread of your choice. 

Well, I made those baguettes I'd been craving. Simple really -- I just did the NYT / Sullivan Street bread scaled down to make three 8-ounce baguettes. Well, I also substituted 10% of the white flour for whole spelt, because I had some on hand, brought the hydration down to 75% and folded it twice before going to bed.

They were very tasty, almost buttery, and the crust was perfect. Crunchy and full of flavor. Crumb was nice too, with the irregularly shaped , though not cavernous, holes I was hoping for.

Man, though, were they butt-ugly.

Ok, the photo is a bit misleading. If you want to make the bread, you won't find the recipe in this book -- you'll need to go here. But what goes better with a fresh loaf of bread, especially this time of year, than a good bowl of soup?