Homemade Bread Bowls

Not really. We are using some all-purpose flour to help keep this bread super soft, but it won’t work as well to only use all-purpose flour. It simply doesn’t contain enough protein.

Bread flour contains a higher percentage of protein, which allows us to build that structure needed for the gluten to develop and proper chewy, delicious bread to form. The combination of the two types of flour here will create the best consistency for bread bowls – soft but chewy and delicious!

Sure – if you’re up for a workout! If you have one, a KitchenAid will help a lot in mixing and kneading your bread bowls, but there’s no reason you can’t knead it by hand. Fair warning, it’s going to take a bit of elbow grease and give your arms and hands a workout! Here are more instructions on how to knead dough.

Using your fingers, gather sections of dough towards the same central point at the bottom and pinch together so you form a very taut ball. If your dough ball is not a tight taught shape, it will not rise up nice and tall. Roll around the seams around the counter to seal. Place 3 dough balls per sheet on your prepared baking sheets. Score each dough ball.

This is called “scoring” the dough. This encourages the bread to evenly rise and then expand in the right spots, without “blowing out” in undesirable spots, such as on the bottom or sides. Be sure to use a sharp knife when scoring so that you can score evenly without tearing the dough.

Yes, they can. I recommend serving a creamy soup, rather than a broth-based soup, in these bread bowls to avoid too much sogginess. The longer the soup-filled bread bowls sit, the soggier they will become, so you can avoid that by serving right away.

Tessa’s Tip: Once the Bread Bowls are baked and the centers have been scooped out, place them back on a baking sheet and toast in the oven at 350°F for a few minutes or until slightly dried out and crunchy at the edges. This will help prevent sogginess. You can even brush the interior of the bread bowls with olive oil or butter, or even a garlic-infused oil or butter, for added flavor!

Another fun idea is to sprinkle the bowls with Parmesan cheese before toasting to add some savory cheesy flavor to your soup.

This is how home ovens can replicate a professional oven’s steam-creating function! By placing a boiler tray on the top shelf of your oven while it preheats, and then adding a cup of boiling water to the hot tray when just about to bake, we can simulate that steam injection professional ovens create, and make a more humid environment as our bread bakes. This is how we can achieve a crisper exterior to our bread bowls and end up with a wonderful crust.

You can skip this step, but your bread will be softer and won’t develop the same sturdy crust that’s perfect for filling with soup, and therefore your bread bowl might get too soggy and/or fall apart.