Make Bread Bowls

Bread bowls are edible vessels used to hold dips, chilis, chowders, soups, and just about anything else you can come up with. Bread bowls can be made from various breads including sourdough, pumpernickel, whole grain, and traditional white bread. Whether homemade or store-bought, bread bowls are a delicious spin on a typical weekday meal -- and cleaning your bowl is much more fun!

Steps

Baking a Bread Bowl

1. Choose your bread recipe. Sourdough is the classic bread type and a round loaf (called a boule) the classic shape for a bread bowl, but there are no hard-and-fast rules. If you can make it, bake it, cut the top off, hollow it out, fill it, and eat it, it can be a bread bowl.
   • Bread recipes can be found easily online. Here are few bread bowl-ready recipes for inspiration: Italian;; Whole Wheat; Beer Pretzel.
   • The following steps briefly describe how to make a sourdough boule. For more detailed instructions, see Make Sourdough Bread.
2. Make your "starter." Classic sourdough relies on a starter, a mix of flour and water which feeds the natural yeast needed to make the bread rise.
   • Mix equal parts flour and water (any amount) in a bowl, then pour the mix into a thoroughly clean class or plastic jar with a tight-fitting lid.
   • Seal the lid and leave in a dark place at room temperature for 24 hours.
3. Feed your starter. Every day, pour out half of the mix and replace it with a new flour/water slurry.
   • Repeat this process until the starter has frothy bubbles on top and a distinctive sour smell. This usually happens within a week.
4. Make your "sponge." Add all your starter to a mixing bowl, then add equal parts flour and water (one cup of water is usually good for one loaf) and mix.
   • Cover with a clean towel and let your "sponge" (the resulting mixture) "proof" (rise) for several hours, until bubbly on top.
   • Save a little of this sponge to become your next starter, if desired.
5. Mix in a pinch of salt and just enough flour to make a sticky dough that holds together. Cover and let rise for several hours at room temperature or in the refrigerator overnight.
6. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes by hand (or with a dough hook on a stand mixer) until it is glossy and smooth.
   • Flour your hands, workspace, and dough to prevent sticking.
7. Make the dough into a boule shape, if desired. This isn’t essential, since bread bowls can be in any fillable shape, but the following is a good general method for creating a boule (round bread).
8. Form the dough into a rough ball shape, and pick it up from beneath with both hands. Use your thumbs and fingers to stretch the dough from the top of the ball downwards. Tuck the stretched dough underneath the ball.
   • This process makes a taut “skin” on the top of the dough ball. This helps it to rise while baking, so your bread will have more of a rounded dome than a flattened disc shape.
9. Rotate the dough ball in your hands and continue stretching so that you have a taut top surface all around. With practice, you will be able to do this quickly and efficiently, thus preventing excess gluten development (and thus tougher bread).
10. Turn the dough ball over, and find the “belly button.” The excess stretched dough beneath the ball should form something akin to this shape. Pinch the excess together and give it a slight twist to hold it in place.
    • You can also pinch, put the dough ball on the board (topside up), and twist.
11. Allow for the final rise (or “proofing”) and bake as directed by your recipe. For the sourdough recipe noted here, bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
    • Consider spritzing your bread with a spray bottle of water several times during baking. Keeping the top from drying out will help with rising.

Preparing a Bread Bowl

1. Choose your bread and loaf shape, if not making your own bread. A trip to a bakery or bakery section of your supermarket will reveal several different types of bread loaves.
   • Pumpernickel and sourdough breads are often round, while Italian and French breads are usually elongated loaves. Larger sandwich rolls can become small bread bowls, or try an unsliced loaf of regular white or wheat bread for a larger option. Even a loaf of raisin or banana bread could work with the right filling. Remember, bread bowls do not need to be round, just fillable.
   • Firmer breads are easier to slice open and empty out, however, so an extra-soft loaf of white bread may not be the ideal choice.
2. Remove the top of the bread. With a serrated knife, carefully cut the top of the bread using horizontal cutting strokes. Leave as much of the bread loaf behind; only remove enough of the top of the bread to allow access into the loaf itself.
3. Remove the inner bread. With your fingers, scoop and tear away chunks of bread from the interior of the loaf. Be sure never to break through the outside crust. The thinner the filling you intend to use, the thicker you want to leave the walls of your bread bowl.
4. Don't waste the inner bread. Cut the removed bread into cubes for dipping either into the soup, chili or dips. Serve the bread alongside the filled bowl.
   • You can also use this bread to make croutons or bread crumbs, or to feed the birds in your local park.
5. Fill the bread bowl with your selected soup, dip, etc, and enjoy. Use the removed bread top as a lid, if desired, or cut it up along with the removed inner bread.

Filling a Bread Bowl

1. Choose thick soups and stews. Cream based soups (mushroom, broccoli, chicken, etc.) and chilis are classic bread bowl fillings because they soak into the bread (making a deliciously edible “bowl”) without quickly soaking through it.
   • You can use thinner soups like tomato or chicken noodle, but be prepared to serve and eat quickly because they will soak through the bread. Consider placing your bread bowl in a larger, non-edible bowl.
2. Dip it. Dips are another classic bread bowl filling. Use the removed inner bread as dippers. Here are a few suggestions:
   • Taco Dip
   • Stuffed Mushroom Dip
   • Crab Dip
3. Make it a heartier meal. Who says it has to be soup? Consider some of the following:
   • Chicken or Turkey Pot Pie
   • Chicken Cordon Bleu
   • Sloppy Joes
4. Get creative. Pretty much everything pairs well with bread, so the possibilities are practically limitless when it comes to filling bread bowls. For instance:
   • Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
   • Make-Your-Own Omelet Bar
   • Melted Chocolate Fondue, with bread cubes and sliced fruit to accompany it. Even if the chocolate hardens before you can finish it, you’ll have a delicious chocolate bread to eat instead of a crusty fondue pot to clean.

Tips

• Thin soups or chili will turn the bread soggy quickly and may begin to leak. Avoid this by leaving more bread between the soup and the crust; a thicker wall of bread will leak less quickly than a thin one.

Warnings

• Add the soup, dip, chili or whatever else you are serving to the bread bowl immediately before serving otherwise, the bread can get soggy causing the contents to leak out of the bread.

Things You'll Need

• Unsliced loaf of bread
• Serrated knife
• Soup, chili, dip or other dish to put into the bread bowl

Related Articles

• Make Oatmeal Bread
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• Make Bread Crumbs with Stale Bread
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Sources and Citations

• http://huggingthecoast.com/2010/04/10/make-a-bread-bowl-to-serve-soup-salad-chili-stew-and-dips-weekend-video-spotlight/

See also

• Make Cheesy Bread
• Make Oatmeal Bread
• Make Squaw Bread
• Make Gluten‐Free Croutons
• Make a Traditional Jewish Style Deli Water Bagel
• Make Bhatura
• Make Bread
• Make Irish Soda Bread
• Make Crumpets
• Make a Microwave Simple Bread

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• Make Irish Soda Bread