Homemade Bread Bowls is a great way to add fun to any soup dinner. These bakery-style bread bowls have a deliciously crusty outside and a tender, fluffy, chewy inside with only. a few basic ingredients. Serve your favorite soup in these freshly made golden brown bread bowls in less than 3 hours from start to finish, baked at home in your oven.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
Nothing goes better with soup than a nice, homemade bread bowl! These edible bowls were so easy and delicious, I will never buy them from the bakery again!
- Pantry ingredients: No need to grab bread flour; you can use regular all-purpose flour in this easy bread bowl recipe.
- Enough for the family: This recipe can make enough for 6 bread bowl dough pieces.
- Easy dinner: Pair this easy homemade bread bowls recipe with your favorite soup or favorite dip, and you are ready to eat and have bread for dipping!
- Easy prep: Prepared in 20 minutes, rises for 1 ½ to 2 hours, and bakes for 25-30 minutes.
“I made these for my loaded baked potato soup the other week, and they were awesome! I am making them again tonight! Thank you for sharing! 🙂” — Meggan
You cannot go wrong serving our Disneyland’s Loaded Potato Soup in this delicious recipe.
Key Ingredients:
Warm water is essential to making sure the dough rises. If it’s not warm enough, the yeast will not be activated, but if it is too hot, it can kill the yeast. A good rule of thumb is if you can’t wash your hands in it, the water is too hot.
Active dry yeast is essential for this recipe since there are not multiple rises in the directions. We love using the Red Star yeast in the jar or packets of yeast for the best results.
Unsalted butter that has been melted will add essential flavor to the bread bowls.
Granulated sugar feeds the yeast and helps it grow to create the pockets of air in the rolls. You can use honey in place of the granulated sugar as a good substitute.
Kosher salt helps flavor but also limits the yeast from overproducing and becoming too airy.
As for flour, you can use all-purpose flour and get the best tender and chewy bread.
See below for a detailed list of ingredients!
Equipment Needed:
How to Make Homemade Bread Bowls:
- To make the bread bowls, start by using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment or a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon, add warm water, and sprinkle in the yeast. Mix the yeast in the water and let it dissolve for a few minutes until the yeast becomes foamy on the top of the water.
- Add the melted butter, sugar, and salt to the foamy mixture, mixing everything until it is all combined.
- For the best results and easy mixing, gradually add the flour to the water mixture.
- Once combined, allow your mixer to knead the bread dough for about 5 minutes, or you could do this by hand if you weren’t using a mixer, and you will still get the same results.
- After mixing the dough, punch the dough down to release any extra air from the dough before shaping
- Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces and shape them into a circle, trying the keep the seams of the dough tucked under the ball. You can use a kitchen scale to weigh the dough as a whole and then divide that amount by 6, and weigh each piece individually to ensure you have each piece with the same amount of dough.
- Place each dough ball on a greased baking sheet and let the dough rise until doubled.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, preheat the oven to 425℉ and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Let cool and cut off the top, remove some of the bread from the inside, and fill with hot soup or a dip like spinach dip.
Recipe Add-Ins and Variations
Garlic-Parmesan: Add 1 tsp garlic powder and ⅓ cup finely grated Parmesan to the flour
Italian Herb: Add 1–2 tsp dried Italian seasoning to the aloue mixture
Jalapeño-Cheddar: Add in ½ cup sharp cheddar cubes and 1–2 Tbsp minced jalapeño (pat dry) when shaping the dough.
Whole Wheat: Swap 1 ½ cups (180g) whole wheat flour in place of the all-purpose flour, adding 1- 2 Tbsp water if the dough feels stiff.
Tips and Recipe Notes
- For more crusty bread bowls, you can brush an egg wash on the outside of the bread dough.
- To add a design, use a sharp knife and slice into the top of the dough. You can add an “x” shape to the top of the bowls for a classic design.
- Use a lightly floured surface to easily work the dough.
Storage Instructions
Store the leftover bread bowls in an airtight container on the counter at room temperature for up to 3 – 5 days for or place them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
FAQ’s for Homemade Bread Bowls
This easy homemade bread bowl recipe can work with any soup! Serve them with thick soups, hearty soups, or creamy soup! Any soup will be delicious.
If your dough is sitting in a cool area, you will need to relocate the dough to a warm place. A simple way to do this is by turning the oven on warm for 10 minutes, turning it off, and then placing the cookie sheet in the warm spot and letting the dough rise. Just be sure to remove the dough before preheating the oven.
Too cold: Either the water wasn’t warm enough to activate the yeast or the dough is sitting in a cold area.
Too much flour: If there is too much flour, it will take longer for your dough to rise because it is heavier and will produce a dense bread bowl.
In one packet of yeast there is 2 ¼ tsp of yeast. This is the standard for yeast, making it easy to swap packages for using a jar of yeast if you prefer.
More Easy Soup Recipes:
Creamy Chicken Fajita Soup and Seven-Can Chicken Tortilla Soup are some of our most popular soup recipes and would be phenomenal in these bread bowls.
Creamy Ground Beef and Macaroni Tomato Soup and Tomato Tortellini Soup are both easy, creamy and pasta filled soups, perfect for serving on cold winter nights.
Homemade Bread Bowls Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups warm water
- 11 teaspoons active dry yeast, 2 (5½ teaspoon packages)
- ½ cup butter, 1 stick (melted)
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 6 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Using a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, add warm water and sprinkle in yeast. Let dissolve for a few minutes until yeast becomes foamy.
- Add melted butter, sugar and salt and mix until combined.
- Gradually add flour.
- Once combined, allow your mixer to knead the dough for about 5 minutes (you could do this by hand if you weren’t using a mixer, but it may get a little tiring!).
- Punch dough down and form into 6 equal sized balls.
- Place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise until doubled.
- Preheat oven to 425℉ and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Let cool and cut off the top, remove some of the bread from the inside and fill with soup or dip.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I used to work in a cafe that made these…sooo good! Haven’t had one in so long, so really excited to come across this. Plus it looks easy too, can’t wait to try it out!
I love bread bowls!
Congrats to you all on your cookbook; it looks super! How very exciting!
MMmmm….Hubby loves soup in bread bowls! Thanks for the recipe, and for all the soup suggestions. =0)
~Kim
http://2justByou.blogspot.com
Getting ready to make these right now but am wondering if you need to let the dough rise after the mixing before punching down and forming into the balls??
Hi Lisa!
You only have to let them rise after they are rolled into balls. 🙂 Thanks!
This is fantastic!! I’d love to make these – with your tomato/tortellini soup recipe inside!
Sheree
The Hartungs Blog
thehartungs.blogspot.ca
I’m inspired. I have never tried a bread bowl before. I think I’ll have to do that. I have some Tumbleweed Contessa chili just dying to be put in one of these! Thanks.
Linda (The Contessa)
Ooo, this is definitely what we’re having for dinner! With a creamy chicken broccoli soup. Thanks for the recipe! Have you done them with wheat flour? I decided to try it half & half with fresh ground wheat flour and AP flour.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I just made these for dinner tonight (potato soup) and can not wait to dig in, just waiting on my husband to get home!! The smell so good it’s not funny and my kids are dying to get theirs! Thanks for sharing this easy recipe!!
These are amazing!! Thank you so much for your recipe! I have realized I use your recipes a lot on my blog! I give you a mention every time =)
http://chickwhocooks.blogspot.com/2013/04/bread-bowls.html
I tried this tonight for my family, it didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. I let the bread rise once as directed, and unfortunately it deflated in the oven. I haven’t tasted the bread yet, but they’re basically discs. Next time I make this I will definitely let it rise once before shaping, and then once after shaping into balls. Thanks for the recipe though!
My mom loves this recipe (and now bread bowls) to pieces, and she even wants to make them now! Thank you so much for posting this, they turned out great when I made them, and I’m working on making my own recipe to fit my own needs.
I’m getting ready to make these to serve beef stew in. My husband wanted beef stew, and my youngest daughter requested bread bowls… It’s not even cold in SC yet!
I made these for a missionary dinner and they flopped. 🙁 I was so bummed! I was hoping they would rise nicely and be fluffy, but they barely rose and turned out flat. We could barely get any soup into the bowls. Any ideas what went wrong?
I’ve been baking/cooking since my youth, and I cook every meal (I mean every single meal) from scratch, so it’s not like I don’t know how to follow a recipe. I’m at a loss… please help!
I made five batches of these this week. I had the best
Luck when I didn’t let them rise too much into the discs. Also I put them
Them in a slightly warm oven to rise and my baking time was a
Shorter than recipe
Mine just came out of the oven and they rose to double size but I don’t see how even doubling in size is enough to make these big enough to hold soup! Mine aren’t as big and round as the picture. Are you positive they don’t need 2 risings? I’ve been toying with all kinds of yeast dough recipes lately and every single one of them require 2 risings.
I made these for my loaded baked potato soup the other week and they were awesome! I am making them again tonight! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
I followed directions and mine didn’t rise, they were flat disks. But they tasted good, we just sliced them and dipped in our soup. I am wondering if they should rise twice.
What a great blog! You six sisters are so cute! How fun it would be to have so many sisters, (coming from only boys!) ha.. Love your recipes! About to try the bread bowls. I think they will turn out great!
Keep up the good blog!
Has anyone tried making a GF version of this with GF flour? My hubby has ibs and has to eat gf bread and I’m finding it very difficult to make at home. And he loves/misses rolls like this so I would hate to make it regular for me and our son and him miss out on bread bowls 🙁
These turned out beautiful!! Golden brown, and just the right size!
I can’t wait to fill them with broccoli cheese soup tonight!
I just came across this recipe and want to make it with home made clam chowder. Since I am freezing some of the soup, can the bread bowls be frozen before baking and then baked as needed? I guess I’d have to thaw before baking, but I’d like to bake them fresh as needed. Any suggestions?
We haven’t frozen the bread dough. We make it and then cook them. If you freeze the dough, you would have to thaw and let them rise before baking.
I made these today with the chicken chili soup recipe from your cookbook. Delicious! They didn’t look like what I was expecting from a “bread bowl” as they were flatter, but I was still able to cut the tops off and fill with the soup. I think this recipe would also make wonderful hamburger buns, making 8 or maybe even 10 smaller balls of dough. It was certainly one of the fastest yeast recipes I’ve ever made. Thank you!
Is there a trick to shaping these? The bread is delicious and airy and the recipe was quick but my bread bowls turned out to be small bread loaves. They were like 2 inches high and 5 inches wide. How you you get them to rise up instead of out?
No egg in the bread bowl recipe??? And don’t let it rise twice??? I’ve made many yeast bread recipes and always have egg and rise twice. Don’t want to get that wrong and waste 6 cups of flour…. Thanks for the recipe!
I made these tonight and my bread also turned out pretty flat, like others have noted above. I was wondering if it was because I put the melted butter into the yeast and water mixture when it was hot, just after I melted it. Maybe that killed some of the yeast? Next time I would try maybe letting the butter cool for a while or adding it after the flour. We didn’t put soup into the bowls but the bread went well with our soup. Thanks!
I just made them I let them rise twice I like the flavor,soft, goooood but they arent like the picture!!mine are a little bit flat!!
I made these this evening for my family with a chicken stew and they absolutely LOVED them! My husband was actually kind of upset there wasn’t extra bowls for him to take for his lunch lol. I’ve made all kinds of bread recipes that were labor intensive and required a ton of ingredients. This one is by far the easiest one I’ve ever come across and made! Definitely will be my go-to bread recipe for roll, loaves and bowls 🙂 Thank you ladies for sharing!!
Love. I’ve made these for years. Anyone saying they didn’t be rise. 1 was your yeast fresh? 2 I always used the yeast in a jar not package.
YUM!!!! These bread bowls look beyond delicious! Thank you for posting detailed pics! It definitely helps!! Going to give these bread bowls a try!!!
Had made these three times now (including tonight) and have never had a problem with them rising. My guess is that others are either killing the yeast with hot butter or not using fresh yeast. Yeast in the jar is far better than packets. No second rise is needed. My son requested these for a third year in a row for his bday dinner– bread bowls with Chicken Parmesan soup. Thank you, Six Sisters for sharing a recipe that is a memory for my 4 boys!
Hi Betsy, Thanks for taking the time to send us a sweet comment. What a fun idea for a birthday dinner. Happy Birthday to your son! Have a great week!
thanks for sharing this post it’s mouth-watering I really enjoyed it
Hello. I’ve made this bread bowl recipe many times, and love them!
I was wondering though if this dough would make a good pizza dough, and how would I modify it?
This will make a great pizza dough too. Just roll it out for your pizza.
I make these all the time. If they collapsed, it wasn’t because they needed another rise. It is because you let them rise too much before putting them in the oven.