Make soup season even tastier with deliciously warm and crusty Homemade Bread Bowls; it’s the perfect way to serve all your favorite soups!
The only way to make your favorite soups even better is to serve them in easy-to-make, Homemade Bread Bowls! Incredibly soft and fluffy on the inside, with a wonderful, sturdy crust on the outside, these bread bowls are a simple mix of flour, yeast, oil, and water that requires no special tools to make. They’re the tastiest way to enjoy any soup you can think of!
Bread Makes Everything Better
When it’s soup season, we pull out all our favorite recipes and also stock up on a few cans, because sometimes canned soup hits the spot on a busy night. No matter how good those soup recipes are, though, nothing beats soup served in a warm, flaky, and mouthwatering Homemade Bread Bowl! Making bread bowls is just as easy as making a loaf of French bread, but even better because you can make delightfully crunchy croutons from the center of the bread that’s removed and top your soup with them! Homemade bread bowls make every meal better and take any soup from “yummy” to “ahhh-mazing”!
Fire up the crockpot to create timeless favorites like Slow Cooker Classic Tomato Soup and Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup, perfect for enjoying in homemade bread bowls!
Other Recipes to Serve with Homemade Bread Bowls
- Lighten up any soup night with a simple and delish Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette!
- Bread also makes a fantastic dessert, so make sure you grab a piece of Bread Pudding with Vanilla Caramel Sauce before it gets gobbled up!
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients: You will need a few packets of instant yeast, unbleached bread flour (organic preferred), and salt.
Wet Ingredients: You will also need vegetable oil, warm water, and an egg white.
How to Make Homemade Bread Bowls
STEP ONE: Using a stand mixer with a bread hook, add the yeast, flour, and salt to the mixer bowl. On low speed, begin to mix the dry ingredients and slowly add the warm water. Once the water is mixed in, turn the speed to medium and pour in the vegetable oil.
STEP TWO: Allow the mixer to knead the dough for five minutes. When the dough is soft, lightly coat a large bowl with a little more oil and transfer the dough to it. Cover the bowl with a towel and place the bowl somewhere warm to rise for 15-20 minutes.
STEP THREE: After the dough has risen, remove the towel and punch the dough down to release the air. Divide the dough into six equal portions.
STEP FOUR: Roll the portions into balls and place them on a baking sheet. Cover the baking sheet with a towel and let the dough rise again until it has doubled in size, approximately 20 minutes.
STEP FIVE: Move one rack to the top position and a second rack to the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F and whisk the egg whites and water together in a small bowl. Brush this mixture over each ball of dough.
STEP SIX: Place a broiler pan filled with water to the brim on the top rack, and place the baking sheet of dough balls on the middle rack. Bake for 30 minutes, until the bread bowls are golden brown.
STEP SEVEN: Remove the bread from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. Once the bread is cool, carefully cut out the center of the bread bowl and remove enough of the bread inside to create a bowl. Fill with your favorite soup and enjoy!
Tips for Success
- Be sure to purchase rapid-rise instant yeast for this recipe, not active dry yeast, which requires additional steps.
- If you don’t have a mixer or a mixer with a bread hook, don’t worry, you can still make this bread. Whisk and stir when indicated in the recipe, and knead the dough by hand, rather than using a mixer.
- Dips are also fantastic when served in bread bowls! Creamy artichoke spinach dip, a lovely French onion dip, or any of your favorite dips can be easily served in a bread bowl.
- If you’d like, you can chop up the bread that has been removed from the bowls and season it to create croutons for even more tasty bread fun!
- Store the bread bowls covered on the counter for up to 4 days or well-wrapped and in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow the frozen bread bowl to thaw on the counter before enjoying it.
How do I keep my bread bowl from getting soggy?
To prevent your bread bowl from getting soggy, be sure to remove only as much bread as you need, and also serve a thicker soup in the bowl. If too much bread is removed from the bottom and sides of the bowl, the soup will more easily soak into the bowl, potentially creating a soggy situation. You don’t want to hollow out the bowl completely, so take out enough bread to make room for a serving of soup. Additionally, heartier soups will take longer to absorb into the bread, unlike thinner soups, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying any soup you like in these bowls!
What is the best soup for bread bowls?
As you’ve likely gathered from the question above, thicker soups are best for bread bowls. The crusty exterior of bread bowls is excellent for holding soups in for a nice amount of time, and the denser the soup, the longer it will take for the bread bowl to get soft. Chowders and creamy soups are great soups to serve in bread bowls, such as clam chowder or everyone’s favorite broccoli cheese soup! Classics like tomato soup and chicken noodle soup are wonderful as well, but will obviously soak in faster. Try out all of your favorite soups to see which combination you like best!
More Comforting Bread Recipes to Love!
- Dutch Oven Bread
- Homemade Cheese Bread
- Spinach Artichoke Pull-Apart Bread
- Homemade White Bread
- Honey Wheat Dinner Rolls
*This post originally posted on 10/27/2014.
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ ounce instant yeast (2 packets)
- 7 cups bread flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 ½ cups warm water (120-130 degrees F)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil plus more for coating a bowl
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Attach the bread hook to your stand mixer. Add the yeast to the bowl of the mixer and then top with flour and salt.
- Turn the mixer on low and then slowly add the water. Once that is combined, increase the speed to medium and add the oil.
- Allow the dough to continue to knead for 5 minutes until it becomes soft.
- Grease a large bowl with more vegetable oil. Transfer the dough to the bowl and roll it around in the oil to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set it in a warm place to rise for 15 to 20 minutes until the dough has doubled in size.
- Punch down the dough and divide it into 6 even portions. Form each portion into a ball and set them onto a greased baking sheet. (You may need to use 2 baking sheets so there is room between the dough balls.)
- Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rise again until the dough has doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Arrange the oven racks so one is in the top spot and another in the center.
- In a small bowl, beat together the egg white and 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the wash all over the dough balls.
- Place a broiler pan or shallow baking dish on the top rack of the oven. Carefully fill the pan with warm water. Place the rolls into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove the rolls from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack, about 1 hour.
- Using a sharp knife, cut a circle out of the top of each roll. Remove the bread from the inside of the roll to create the bowl. Be sure to leave a layer of bread along the walls to keep the bowl stable. Fill with your favorite thick soup or dip and enjoy!
Notes
- Nutritional information is for 1 whole roll before being hollowed out.
- You can use the bread removed to make the bowls as a dipper for dips, or make homemade croutons.
Ginnie says
These looks so delish! I love soup in a bread bowl:)
Kelly says
My son’s favorite meal is clam chowder in bread bowls. I can make some mean chowder, but I haven’t attempted the bread bowls from scratch, yet. Pinning this so I am prepared next time they’re needed!
chanelle says
Yum, I love Disneyland’s clam chowder in a bread bowl. The price of Disneyland? That’s a different story. In fact, we’re kind of taking a break for a while, even though we live in southern california. It’s just too expensive and too crowded!
These bread bowls look great, and who doesn’t love homemade bread?