Learn how to make crusty and soft homemade bread bowls with step by step pictures. You only need 6 simple ingredients to begin. This is a delicious basic dinner roll recipe you should hold onto!
Tie on your aprons, gather your determination, and heat up that creamy soup. Let’s dive right into homemade bread bowls! Today I’m going to talk about the dough itself, convince you there’s nothing to fear, share the recipe, then walk you through step-by-step pictures so you can see how the bread bowls come together.
This is a priceless recipe that you can and will master.
Ingredients in Bread Bowls
Homemade bread bowls come together with a few simple ingredients. Let’s review:
- Yeast: We use active dry yeast to make bread bowl dough. I highly recommend using a quality yeast like Red Star Yeast— it’s always my go-to brand for the best tasting breads!
- Water: 2 and 1/4 cups is the perfect amount. Use warm water to cut down on rise time, about 110-115°F. Anything over 130ºF kills the yeast.
- Sugar: 2 teaspoons of sugar “feed” the yeast which create carbon dioxide bubbles and allow the dough to rise.
- Salt + Oil: Salt and extra virgin olive oil add incredible and necessary flavor.
- Bread Flour: Bread flour contains a lot of protein which helps form a chewier, more dense, and, well, more bread-like… bread. (Technical terms!!) We want a strong and crusty bread for our bread bowls and bread flour will help us achieve that.
If yeast terrifies you, don’t hide your eyes! It’s just another ingredient added to the dough. We’re not doing anything special with it. We’re just mixing it with water. The magic happens during hands-off time.
How to Make Bread Bowls
Bread-making probably seems impossible, but think of it this way: it’s one of the most basic foods. Just simple ingredients mixed together, left alone to work some magic, shaped, and baked. That’s the process and it’s 100% something you can handle. I include lots of step photos below the recipe– here’s a quick overview of the bread bowl making process:
- Mix the dough ingredients together. You can use a mixer or do this by hand. The dough should be thick, yet soft– and only slightly sticky.
- Form the dough into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, shape the dough into a ball and place it into a large, greased bowl.
- Let the dough rise. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm environment until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
- Punch down the dough. Place it onto a lightly floured surface.
- Cut the dough into 6 even pieces. Form each into a ball. Place on prepared baking sheets– 3 dough balls per sheet.
- Score an X into each. Lightly brush the tops of each dough ball with egg wash and use a sharp knife to score an X into the tops of each. The egg wash is what makes them so shiny! If not eating as a bread bowl, the X makes it easy to tear into pieces. Ease of breaking apart is crucial in a bread lover’s world.
- Bake. These bread bowls take about 30 minutes to bake.
- Cut out the tops. When cool enough to handle, cut a large round out of the top of each bread bowl. Scoop out the center (save the center to dunk into soup!) and fill with soup.
- Enjoy!
This is A Basic Bread Dough
The dough we’re using to make bread bowls is a very basic bread dough. Made with common ingredients that most bakers have on hand, it’s simple, wholesome, and incredibly versatile. In fact, you’ll find the same ingredients in my sandwich bread and homemade pizza dough recipes. Using the same basic ingredients in varying amounts– like flour, yeast, water, and salt– produces incredibly different results!
Bread bowl dough is a lean dough, which means that it’s prepared without fat and produces crusty bread such as focaccia, bagels, and artisan bread. On the other hand, rich doughs make soft breads such as babka, soft dinner rolls, and glazed doughnuts. When I’m making softer and fluffier bread, I typically use all-purpose flour, milk instead of water, and add additional fat like eggs and/or butter. More fat usually means the dough takes longer to rise. Today’s bread bowls are a particularly “lean” dough, so the rise time is quicker.
There’s no need to activate the yeast for this dough (basic, remember?)– which is when you add a pinch of sugar to the warm liquid/yeast to ensure that the yeast is active or not. Modern yeast is most likely active and ready to go. Just check the expiration date on the package.
Use This Dough for Anything
After the dough rises, you’ll shape the dough into 6 balls and bake them. You’re not limited to bread bowls though! This dough can easily turn into a couple pans of traditional dinner rolls, crusty loaves of bread, or even a few pizza doughs. You can add seasonings like garlic powder (my suggestion!), Italian seasoning, onion power, rosemary, etc. So many ways we can enjoy fresh bread with this simple and versatile recipe.
One batch of bread bowl dough makes:
- 24 dinner rolls
- 3 crusty loaves of bread
- 4 12-inch pizza crusts
See my recipe notes below the recipe for detailed instructions for making each variation, as well as my make ahead and freezing tips.
What to Serve in Bread Bowls
The options are endless when considering what to serve in homemade bread bowls. A few of my favorites are crab dip, roasted garlic and bacon spinach dip, minestrone soup, slow cooker chicken chili, and lightened-up creamy chicken noodle soup (pictured inside today’s bowls). Here are all of my soup recipes for even more inspiration!
Begin with quality yeast. ????
Pour warm water on top, give it a minute to combine and froth up, then add the rest of the dough ingredients. You know the dough is ready when it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.
Let it rise in a warm environment until (roughly) doubled in size, about 90ish minutes. I use my oven. Preheat it to 200°F (93°C) then turn the oven off and place the bowl inside the warm-ish oven. Leave the oven door slightly cracked open. I placed the bowl on top of a baking sheet because the bottom of the mixer bowl is plastic.
The dough will be voluptuous! And filled with air. Punch the dough down to release those air bubbles. You’ll be left with a super soft dough. ↓
Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces, about the size of a softball, and round them into balls as best you can.
Use 2 baking sheets. Place 3 balls on each.
Cover lightly with a tea towel, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, etc. Let the dough rest for 20ish minutes. How cute is this towel!!!
Brush with egg wash. The egg wash helps create a crisp golden brown crust.
Score an X on the top of the unbaked rolls. This helps the rolls expand.
Bake until golden brown. Gorgeous!!
Carve out a deep hole in the bread. Doesn’t need to be perfect. Just use a knife.
Add your soup. Dive in!
