My kids constantly ask for homemade bread bowls with soup, and when I think of the process, I think “ugh, it takes forever, can’t I just make biscuits? Or popovers? Or give you crackers?” But then I found a bread bowls recipe I can make in an hour.
A Quick and Easy Bread Bowl Recipe
I am happy to report you can really make fresh bread bowls in an hour. And they’re soft bread on the inside, crispy crusty bread on the outside, they totally blew my kids away. Aaaaaand in other news, I need bigger pants.
Make Fresh Bread Bowls in an Hour
In the past, I’d only embarked on making fresh bread bowls once or twice and while they were good they weren’t stellar. And as you can see I really felt they weren’t worth my time or energy. Apparently, I deserve a giant “you’re doing it wrong!”, side-eye and an eye roll, because I was doing it wrong.
As a side note, I made 3 batches of these and took them for the last Palmer Food Swap. Perfect for the food swap, they were gone in minutes!
When finished the bowls will look crusty and dry, that’s ok! While the exterior has about 1/3 inch of crust the inside bread will be moist and lovely.
You can use these for sandwiches or toast but make sure you use them for sandwiches soon because they will get dry quickly. If used for soup they should stay in perfect shape for bread bowls for about 48 hours. Ours have been used right away every time.
Here they are filled with a version of this French Onion Casserole. I cooked the recipe right up until it’s been simmered for 10 minutes. Then instead of putting in a 9×13, I put it in the bread bowls. Then topped them with swiss cheese and ran under the broiler for about 5 minutes or so.
Now that I know how to make fresh bread bowls, I’m constantly thinking about how I can use them next. What other soup can I make and stuff in there? I think Lasagna Soup would be FANTASTIC in a bread bowl! But this Hungarian Mushroom Soup would be good in these bread bowls too!
Fresh Bread Bowls in an Hour
Ingredients
- 6 cups flour, can use 1/2 bread flour half all purpose unbleached
- 2 TBSP instant yeast, I use SAF which can be foundsome health food stores, Walmart, and online-I've also used regular rapid rise yeast and the results were ok, affiliate link
- 1 TBSP kosher salt, if you use regular salt use roughly 3/4 TBSP
- 2 TBSP Sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water, warm
- 1/2 cup greek yogurt
- 3 TBSP olive oil
- olive oil, for oiling the rising bowl and brushing on top
- kosher salt, to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- mix the 5 dry ingredients together in the stand mixer with bread hook on
- put the water, greek yogurt and olive oil in a small bowl and stir together
- Stand Mixer--add to the dry ingredients in the mixer, mix until combined and let the machine knead it for 5 minutes
- then remove the dough hook, form the dough into a ball, pour a little oil in the mixing bowl add the dough, turn to coat, cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise for 15 minutes
- Knead by Hand--mix dry ingredients, then mix wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients, stir to combine, keep stirring until a dough forms, then mix with your hands until the flour is absorbed and then knead for 5 minutes, then make into a ball, grease a mixing bowl, put the dough in and cover with a damp kitchen towel
- meanwhile prep the oven, move one rack to lowest position, and the other to a mid oven position
- get a baking sheet ready to hold the bowls and also a cake pan which you will be filling with hot water and placing on the lower rack
- once the dough has risen, remove the towel, punch it down, divide into equal pieces and form each into a ball, squeezing and pinching the seams together and placing it on a baking sheet seam side down
- place the balls roughly 5-6 inches apart from each other
- cut a 1/4 inch deep slash on the top of each ball, brush each ball with oil, then sprinkle with salt
- place in the cold oven, turn on to 400˚, set the timer for 40 minutes
- fill the baking pan with hot water and place on the lower rack off the oven
- you are now 40 minutes away from fresh hot bread bowls
- once the bowls cool you can cut out a circle and pull out the inside of the bowl a bit to make room for soup
Notes
You will need a stand mixer or the have desire to knead bread for 5 minutes or so
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What can you use instead of yogurt? We are dairy free
I’m not sure on that one Melissa?! I think it will take some testing on your part to find something that works.