Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

A Quick and Easy Homemade Bread Bowl Recipe

Mark Stock
By

There’s a solid chance you learned how to bake bread during the pandemic. Seems like we all took on a few immersive hobbies to get through the longest weeks and months. Now that we’re all familiar with sourdough and its creation, let’s take it one step further.

We’re talking, of course, about the ultimate edible vessel: The bread bowl. It holds your favorite soup and instead of needing a rinse and a wash post-meal, it simply gets devoured. The best ones hold their integrity, making the last soup-soaked bites some of the best.

bread bowl on a plate with a utensil sticking out of it.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Half the fun of the bread bowl is deciding what to put in it. Soup is an obvious choice but you could also throw in a winter stew or even a good tomato sauce with some meatballs (or plant-based balls). Seafood fans should opt for a nice clam chowder or cioppino while purists can enjoy something as simple as a hearty pour of good olive oil, with a few drops of balsamic. Throw a good spinach dip in there or go Swiss and dump in some melted cheese. Tear off pieces of the bowl from the top-down, dipping as you go.

Recommended Videos

As you can see, a lot can be done with the bread bowl. Here are some tips on making them, along with a recipe.

Related

What Kind of Bread Do You Use To Make a Bread Bowl?

There are a few things to keep in mind when making a bread bowl. First, the type of bread. Sourdough is a universal classic and arguably the best choice. But you can go with something more rustic as well, opting for wheat or making sure you plug in a quality olive oil instead of vegetable oil. You can even go rye or pumpernickel if you like those flavors. Sesame seeds make for a nice addition, too, if you’re looking to impart a little extra flavor to the bread itself.

Now, there’s no rule that says you have to make the entirety of the thing. Even a bread bowl you carve out of a small, pre-bought loaf is a step in the right direction. Look for something roughly bowl-sized at the store and carve it like you would a pumpkin, hanging on to the pieces you remove for future dunking. This version won’t be fully fresh, but you can inject some texture by giving it a flash broil before filling it, making the crust and exterior a little crisp.

Tips and Tricks Making Homemade Bread Bowls

Now, if you’re making the bowl from scratch, keep a few things in mind. One, try to create a flat base for the bread. Round is great, but if you end up with a sphere it won’t rest on the table quite as well. Two, apply some pressure to the interior of the bread, flattening it a bit. This will up its integrity and allow it to take on more soup or filling. Third, play around with the texture a bit. You can throw the finished product in an air fryer briefly if you want it a little more toasted. Or, save the lid you removed and bake that up with some oil for some crude but delicious crackers to crumble over your chowder.

Homemade Bread Bowl Recipe

Bread bowls on baking sheet.
Kristin Teig

This Kitchn recipe is a little involved, but so are most things in the baking realm. It’s worth the effort and yields some delectable bowls you can proudly say you crafted.

Prep Time: 2 and 1/2 hours

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 6 servings (1 bread bowl per person)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 2 packets of dry active yeast (1/4-ounce per packet)
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 6 cups flour
  • 1.5 tbsp Kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg

Directions:

  1. Mix warm water, yeast, and sugar in mixing bowl and whisk to combine until foamy, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, mix flour and salt in large bowl and whisk to combine.
  2. Attach dough hook and turn the mixer on to the lowest speed. Add vegetable oil and beat until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture 1 cup at a time, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. Continue mixing until a shaggy dough forms. Increase the speed to medium-high and mix until the dough is mostly smooth and feels like putty, and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl, 8-10 minutes. (To make by hand, stir the flour mixture in with a wooden spoon, then knead on a work surface for about 14 minutes.)
  3. Remove the dough from the bowl. Coat the bowl with vegetable oil, then return the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
  4. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Punch down the dough and transfer to a work surface. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough into 6 pieces (about 7 1/2 ounces each).
  5. Shape one piece of dough at a time: Gather a portion of the dough from the side and fold it up and over the top to the center. Repeat, working your way around the piece, until a round forms. Flip the round over. Using the palms of both hands, roll the dough in tight circles against the work surface while pressing slightly down. The dough should be a little tacky and stick to the counter a little — this will help to create tension. Within a few circles, you will start to feel the dough tighten under your palms. Place on the baking sheet, 3 per baking sheet, spacing them evenly apart.
  6. Cover the loaves loosely with kitchen towels or plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size and puffed, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, arrange 2 racks to divide the oven into thirds and heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place 1 large egg and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl and whisk together with a fork until well-blended.
  7. When the loaves have risen, uncover and brush with the egg wash. Score a 2-inch-long “X” on top of each loaf with a knife or bread lame. Let rest for 5 minutes.
  8. Bake until the tops are golden-brown or the center of a loaf registers 190 degrees F, 25-30 minutes. Transfer the loaves to a wire rack and let cool completely, 1 hour.
  9. To make bread bowls, cut a circle about 4 inches wide into the top of a loaf with a serrated knife. Remove the lid and pull off any pieces of bread that may be attached to the lid. Using your hands, hollow out the bowl by pulling out the interior, leaving the crust intact.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mark Stock
Mark Stock
Contributor
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
This cranberry sauce recipe is as easy as opening a can (but tastes much better)
Add homemade cranberry sauce to your Thanksgiving menu this year
Homemade cranberry sauce

If you grew up in a family like mine, you may have thought (perhaps for an embarrassingly long time) that cranberry sauce naturally came in the perfect shape of a can, metal ring impressions and all. It was one of those weird, gelatinous things that made its annual appearance at the Thanksgiving table, and you never gave it much thought after that. Kind of like Grandma's retro ambrosia salad. That red jiggly mass never really did much for me so I happily passed it along when it was handed over. And then one year at a friend's house, I tried the real deal. And everything changed.

Cranberry sauce, the way it's meant to be prepared and enjoyed, is a sweet and tangy wonder. It has just the right amount of pucker and adds hugely delicious interest to otherwise tame and mild flavors like turkey. The biggest sin of the canned version's immense popularity is that real, homemade cranberry sauce is ridiculously easy to make. Like, stupid easy. Certainly easier than trying to get that gooey mass out of a can in one piece! So this year, resist the call of the can and start making cranberry sauce. You won't regret trying this recipe.

Read more
Twice baked sweet potato recipe: The perfect fall side that’s super easy to make
This is one of our favorite sweet potato recipes
Twice baked sweet potatoes

Twice-baked potatoes are one of those indulgently satisfying, comforting, cheesy sides that warm to the absolute core. But when you twice-bake a sweet potato, all of those comforting feelings get a savory autumn upgrade that's unparalleled in both taste and coziness. Twice-baked sweet potatoes are the perfect fall dish. They're simple enough to enjoy as dinner itself, sitting on the sofa under a big quilt, or as an impressive side dish on a holiday as special as Thanksgiving.
Of course, sweet potato recipes are abundant this time of year, but this one, in our opinion, takes the cake. Baking sweet potatoes is exactly like baking regular potatoes. Simply wash, pierce with a fork, rub a little oil for crispy skin, and bake. Once cooked through, that beautifully orange filling is scooped out and mixed with just about anything you like, from cream cheese to butter and herbs to marshmallow fluff. This is a great recipe to experiment with all of your favorite fall flavors.

Twice-baked sweet potato recipe
Ingredients:

Read more
This marshmallow recipe is so simple (and homemade marshmallows are so much better than store-bought)
This is the marshmallow recipe you need
Hot chocolate served in vintage mugs with marshmallows

Hot chocolate season is upon us, and that means marshmallows. Soft and pillowy, bouncy and sweet, tender, chewy marshmallows. Maybe it's just us, but even with the summertime s'more craze, winter seems to be the true marshmallow season. There's just something delightfully wintery about a marshmallow's pure white sweetness, perfectly complimenting so many warm and cozy treats.

And sure, you can always buy a bag of one of the store-bought varieties. They're cheap and convenient, and these days come in a wide variety of flavors, colors, and shapes. But homemade marshmallows are precisely one million times better than any bagged version you can pick up at the store. And chances are, they're a whole lot easier to make than you think.

Read more