Homemade Bread Bowls, perfect for serving soup in & made with only 4 Ingredients! No kneading required!
It is definitely the season for soup. Everyone I’ve talked to lately (even in other states) seems to be coming down with colds right now, including myself. So I decided to make some homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight. I also decided to get fancy & make bread bowls to serve it in. I don’t know where my energy is coming from but I am taking a lot of natural stuff to try to get over this cold as quickly as possible.
The first time I had a bread bowl was at Panera Bread Company. I don’t know if you have ever been there but I love how they serve soup in bread bowls. I like to take the scooped out top part & dip it in the soup. If I wasn’t sick I probably would have made my sister’s copycat broccoli & cheddar soup because that is my favorite from Panera.
This recipe makes 3 bread bowls. You can double the recipe and make 6 if you need to. The crust gets nice and crisp with this bread bowl recipe because you add a tray of water under it while it bakes and it steams it. The inside is really tender & moist & it goes great with soup. I recommend making this the day before or early in the day so the bread has plenty of time to cool.
Adapted from the amazing book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (amazon affiliate link).
- 1½ Cups warm water
- ½ Tablespoons + ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Tablespoon Yeast (I used Red Star Quick-Rise Yeast)
- 3¼ Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- Add yeast to large mixing bowl, next add warm water to activate the yeast.
- Add flour & salt to the large mixing bowl & stir all the ingredients together.
- The bread should be just a little sticky but not too much, if it's really sticky & wet add a little extra flour, if the dough is super dry then add a little more water (sometimes I have to add a little extra water to mine).
- Cover the bowl but not airtight (I placed a clean kitchen towel over the top of the bowl) & let it rise for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours place the dough onto a well floured surface.
- Divide dough into 3 equal parts.
- Shape the dough by picking it up & using your hands to fold the edge of the dough under until you have a round loaf shape with smooth edges. Place onto a greased cookie sheet.
- Using a serrated knife cut an mark on the top of the loaf so the top doesn't crack while its baking (See picture above).
- Let it rise for 40 more minutes.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees BUT first place a metal 9x13 inch pan onto the bottom rack of your oven (*WARNING*: Do Not use glass, it can explode or shatter!) Or use a rimmed metal cookie sheet.
- When the oven is preheated place cookie sheet with bread onto the middle rack of your oven then quickly add 1 cup of water to the bottom 9x13 pan you have on the bottom rack. This pan is used to create a steam in the oven while the bread bakes, in the end it will make your bread have a nice hard crusty texture on the outside but still be soft inside.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the top & bottom are a nice golden brown color.
- Remove from oven & let it cool completely, then use a knife to cut out the middle, be careful not to cut the bottom, scoop out, then enjoy with your favorite soup!
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