Bread Bowls
on Jan 02, 2024
Bread Bowls are so easy to make at home with a crisp outside and a pillowy soft inside. They’re great for soups, dips, and chili recipes. Perfect for making something better than Panera at home!
This is just one of my bread recipes that you will want to make over and over again!
Whenever we stop in at Panera, we’re always eager to grab some of their bread bowl soups. If you’ve never had one, you’re really missing out! The really big appeal of a bread bowl is that you get soft and chewy bread that you can tear off and dip into your soup as you work though it.
Bread and creamy soup are such a perfect combo. Bread bowls are always the best when served with comforting soups like our Creamy Tomato Soup, Clam Chowder or Broccoli Cheese Soup. But, they are also great for presenting dips when entertaining too!
We’ve whipped up some Homemade Bread before and even made Irish Soda Bread so we know a fair bit about making bread. With that in mind, making these mini bread bowls turned out to be pretty easy. It’s just like how you’d make bread normally- just broken down into a few more pieces.
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If you have a stand mixer, it’ll make things really easy but we just decided to get hands-on and mixed or kneaded by hand for most of this recipe. You don’t need any fancy gadgets or tools to make a good homemade bread and making bread bowls from scratch is no exception! Just follow along with the recipe below and you’ll have some tasty bread bowls for soup or chili no time.
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love this Homemade Bread Bowl recipe
- If you’re a big fan of Panera Bread, you’ll want to know how to make bread bowls at home. You’ll be able to enjoy them with your favorite soups, stews and chili’s for a fraction of the cost of purchasing from the restaurant.
- Making bread bowls for soup isn’t that different from homemade bread- and that’s a lot easier to make than you might think it is! We’ll walk you through it all step-by-step and, soon enough, you’ll be able to make them with ease.
- You will not need any fancy equipment like a KitchenAid with a sough attachment. The dough can be made by hand.
- There’s tons of different bread bowl recipes you can make with these. We mentioned soups and chili recipes but you can even do bread bowl dips or bread bowl mac and cheese if you’d like.
Bread Bowl Ingredients
When it comes to ingredients, making bread bowls is pretty similar to making bread from scratch. Here’s all the ingredients you’ll need (note, the image below included the ingredients for a half recipe- 3 bowls):
- Active Dry Yeast – When it comes to the best yeast for bread making, active dry yeast is going to be your best bet. To activate the yeast, you’ll need some warm water and a bit of sugar.
- Sugar – White granulated sugar is going to work best here.
- Salt
- Flour – Just use all-purpose flour for this recipe. You don’t need to grab any different kinds of flour to make a good bowl.
- Butter
- Egg – We’ll be mixing this with a bit of water or milk to make an egg wash.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make a Bread Bowl for Soup
If you’ve ever made bread at home before, then this should all look very familiar. Whenever you’re ready to make homemade bread bowls, here’s what you have to do:
- Add active dry yeast and some sugar to a bowl of warm water.
- Stir mixture just enough for the yeast to dissolve before covering with a towel. Let sit for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast has foamed up and activated.
- While the yeast is activating, measure out and add salt, remaining sugar, and some all-purpose flour to a separate bowl.
- To this bowl of dry ingredients, add your activated yeast mixture and melted butter.
- Using a stand mixer or your hands, mix all the ingredients together until it starts coming together. Keep adding flour and mixing until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. Slowly add flour as needed until the dough barely sticks to a clean hand. Feel free to do this in a stand mixer if you have one handy!
- Lightly coat a large bowl with a neutral oil or nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough into oiled bowl and turn over once to coat dough in oil. Cover with a towel ,and let rise in a warm space for 30-45 minutes so it can rise double in size.
- Once the bread dough has doubled in size, divide it into 6 pieces or however many bread bowls you plan on making. Transfer bread dough balls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Grab a sharp knife and score an X into the top of each dough ball. You’re probably wondering “why do you score bread like this?” It’ll help our bread expand the right way during the second rise and when it bakes later on.
- Lightly cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let rise a second time.
- Beat the egg together with a splash of water to make an egg wash. Using something like a basting or pastry brush, lightly brush the tops of each dough roll with egg wash.
- Bake bread at 400 degrees for around 30 minutes. Once the bread has turned a golden brown, remove from the oven and let cool.
- To make bread into bowls, cut the top off with a serrated knife and use a spoon to scoop out the inside. Remember to leave plenty of bread behind to make sure your bread bowl can hold soup without falling apart right away!
Substitutions
Making these bread bowls uses a lot of fridge and pantry staples, but we can understand if you don’t have or don’t want to use some of these ingredients. Here’s a few ingredients you can substitute in if needed:
- Active Dry Yeast – Active dry yeast just seems like the best option for bread making. The yeast helps the bread rise really well and contributes to the flavor. In a pinch, you can use baking soda and vinegar or lemon juice as a active dry yeast substitute.
- Butter – Adding some sort of fat to our bread dough helps give it that soft and tender texture- plus it helps it crisp up somewhat. Butter is usually a solid choice, but you can sub in all other sorts of oils or even margarine if you’d like.
- Egg Wash – Using that combo of whole egg and water for our egg wash gave us these nice browned bread bowls. But you don’t have to use either of those in your own egg wash: whole egg can be subbed out for egg whites and milk can be used in place of water.
Variations
While these bread bowls aren’t going to be exactly like Panera, they’ll still work out wonderfully and taste great! If you want to get really close to those Panera sourdough bread bowls though, here’s a couple ideas:
- Sourdough Bread Bowls – Making sourdough bread is a different and more involved process than making normal bread. You need to make a sourdough starter and you’ll usually use a mix of flours instead of all all-purpose flour. Still, if you know how to make sourdough bread dough, go ahead and prep some of that and use it to make bread bowls like we’ve outlined here.
- Whole Wheat Bread Bowls – For something that has the same rustic charm as sourdough with a lot less work, consider going with a whole wheat bread bowl instead. Use a blend of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour along with using honey instead of sugar.
Storage / Freezing
Storage: Before any sort of storage, we highly recommend skipping out on cutting off the top and scooping out the inside of your bread bowl. These whole bread rolls are going to keep much better than normal bread bowls. Keep your bread bowl rolls in airtight container or freezer bag and store at room temperature for 3 days or up to a week in the fridge
Freezing: You can also try freezing bread bowls if you want more long-term storage. Keep the bread roll whole once again and transfer to a freezer bag. Keep in the freezer for 3-6 months and let thaw at room temperature before reheating in the oven.
Top Tips
Use fresh yeast for this bread recipe. If your yeast is a bit old, you may have issues with your dough rising.
Melt the butter and allow it to cool before starting the recipe.
Best Soups to Serve with Bread Bowls
Looking for soup recipes to serve with these homemade bread bowls? Try these:
- Clam Chowder
- Creamy Cabbage Soup
- Creamy Potato
- Autumn Squash (Like Panera)
Dip Recipes to Serve in Bread Bowls
Here are some more of our favorite dip recipes to serve in our bowls:
Bread Bowls
Ingredients
- 3 cup warm Water
- 2 packet Active Dry Yeast, 1 1/2 tbsp
- 6 1/2 tsp Sugar, divided
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 4 tbsp Butter, melted
- 7-9 cup Flour, divided
- 1 Egg
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine yeast, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and the warm water.
- Stir until the yeast is dissolved and cover with a towel until the yeast blooms(about 5 minutes).
- In a large bowl whisk together the remaining sugar, salt and about half of the flour.
- Add the melted butter and yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and begin mixing.
- Add flour about a cup at a time and continue mixing until dough comes together and pulls away from the bowl.
- Flour a work surface and turn dough out onto it.
- Knead the dough for about 8 minutes. Add flour as needed to avoid sticking.
- Lightly coat a large bowl with oil and place dough inside. flip to coat other side.
- Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rise until it doubles in size, about 40 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Pick up each and pat and form into a tight ball.
- Place each ball onto the prepared sheet.
- Using a serrated knife, make a slit on each in the shape of an x.
- Cover with a towel and allow to rise about 40 minutes until doubled.
- Preheat oven to 400.
- In a small bowl, beat an egg with a splash of water.
- Brush the tops of the dough with the egg wash.
- Bake for about 30 minutes until bread is browned.
- Allow to cool before cutting.
Notes
Nutrition
Can you freeze these bread bowls for later use since I live alone?