These homemade bread bowls are crisp on the exterior and extra soft inside. They’re made from a basic, yet versatile bread dough using everyday ingredients. This recipe yields 6 bread bowls, but you could use this dough for pizza crust or smaller dinner rolls instead. See notes in the full recipe.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
I originally published this recipe in 2018 and have since added some new photos, a video tutorial, and a few more success tips.
One reader, Kait, commented: “This bread bowl recipe is incredible. I’ve made it several times for my family and they all enjoy it. Your creamy chicken noodle soup worked great in the bowls. Thank you for sharing this recipe! ★★★★★“
Tie on your aprons, gather your determination, and heat up that creamy soup. Let’s dive right into homemade bread bowls!
Ingredients in Bread Bowls
- 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 + Olive Oil: Salt and olive oil add flavor and richness.
- Bread Flour: Bread flour contains a lot of protein which helps form a chewier, denser, 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 you’re a bread beginner, don’t be nervous about yeast. 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.
Overview: 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.
- 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.
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 ciabatta bread, focaccia, homemade bagels, and artisan bread. On the other hand, rich doughs make soft breads such as Nutella babka, 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 (perfect for dipping in homemade Italian dressing!), 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 or Maryland crab soup, garlic and bacon spinach dip, creamy cauliflower potato soup, homemade tomato soup, slow cooker creamy chicken & corn soup, minestrone soup, slow cooker chicken chili, and creamy chicken noodle soup (pictured inside today’s bowls). Here are all of my soup recipes for even more inspiration! If you have any extras, use them to make homemade croutons!
See Your Homemade Bread Bowls
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Print
Homemade Bread Bowls
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 large bread bowls
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Homemade crusty and soft bread bowls- a delicious basic dinner roll recipe you should hold onto!
Ingredients
- 2 packets Red Star® Active Dry Yeast (4 and 1/2 teaspoons)
- 2 and 1/4 cups (540ml) warm water (110°F – 115°F)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) olive oil
- 6 cups (780g) bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and surface*
- egg wash: 1 large egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon water or milk
Instructions
- Pour the warm water over yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Or, if you don’t have a stand mixer, a regular large mixing bowl. Whisk together and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Cover the bowl with a towel. The mixture should be frothy and foamy after 5 minutes.
- If you do not have a mixer, you can mix by hand in this step. With the stand mixer running on low speed, add the sugar, salt, olive oil, 4 cups of bread flour, and seasonings (if using, see recipe note). Beat on low speed for 1 minute, then add remaining 2 cups of flour.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 5-6 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5-6 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Then place into a large greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. (I just use the same mixing bowl—remove the dough, grease it with nonstick spray or olive oil, put the dough back in.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm environment to rise until doubled, about 90 minutes. Tip: For the warm environment on a particularly cold day, heat your oven to 150°F (66°C). Turn the oven off, place the dough inside, and keep the door slightly ajar. This will be a warm environment for your dough to rise. After about 30 minutes, close the oven door to trap the air inside with the rising dough. When it’s doubled in size, remove from the oven.
- Once doubled in size, punch down the dough to release any air bubbles. Remove dough from the bowl and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down again to release any more air bubbles if needed.
- Using a sharp knife or dough scraper, cut into 6 even pieces. Form each into a large ball.
- Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Place 3 dough balls onto each. Cover lightly and set aside to rest for 20 minutes as the oven preheats.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Brush each dough ball with egg wash and, using a sharp knife, score an X into the tops of each.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. For a more accurate test for doneness, the bread bowls are done when an instant-read thermometer reads the center as 195°F (90°C).
- Cool until ready to handle. The longer you cool, the easier they are to cut open. For serving, 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.
- Cover and store leftover bread bowls at room temperature for a couple days or in the refrigerator for 1 week. You can also freeze the baked bread bowls for up to 3 months, then thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: After dough has risen in step 4, punch down the dough inside the mixing bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days, then remove from the refrigerator and continue with the second half of step 5. OR freeze for up to 2 months, then allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and continue with the second half of step 5.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Large Mixing Bowl and Wooden Spoon or Silicone Spatula | Whisk | Dough Scraper | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Pastry Brush | Instant-Read Thermometer
- Whole Wheat Flour: I do not recommend using whole wheat flour in this dough. If desired, you can replace up to 1 cup of bread flour (about 130g) with whole wheat flour.
- Half Recipe: You can halve this recipe to make only 3 bread bowls. Or make the dough as written and freeze half for later use (see make ahead tip).
- Adding Flavor: I love adding a little flavor to the bread dough. I tested the recipe with a couple teaspoons of garlic powder and could hardly taste it. (Though I could certainly smell it.) I increased to 1.5 Tablespoons and it left a light and lovely garlic flavor. Adding garlic powder is optional, but tastes wonderful in the bread. If it pairs nicely with your soup of choice, definitely add it. You can also add 1-2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning or rosemary, or a Tablespoon of onion powder.
- Dinner Rolls: Makes 24 rolls, which is likely more than you need, but you can freeze half of the dough for later. Prepare dough through step 4. Instead of forming into 6 balls in step 5, divide the dough in half. Freeze half of the dough for later use (see make ahead tip) and form the other half into 12 balls. Place balls in a greased 9×13 baking pan. Cover lightly and set aside to rest for 20 minutes. Brush with egg wash, score with an X if desired (not necessary) and bake at 350°F (177°C) for 25-28 minutes or until the tops and edges are golden brown.
- Pizza Dough: Makes 4 12-inch pizza crusts, which is likely more than you need, but you can freeze half of the dough for later. Prepare dough through step 4. Instead of forming into 6 balls in step 5, divide the dough in half. Freeze half of the dough for later use (see make ahead tip) and form the other half into 2 large balls. Cover lightly and set aside to rest for 20 minutes. Flatten each ball of dough 1 at a time on a lightly floured surface or on a silicone baking mat. You could also do this directly on your greased pizza pan. Flatten and stretch into a 12-inch round circle. Brush with a little olive oil (no need for egg wash). Add toppings and bake in a super hot oven at 475°F (246°C). Pizzas typically take 12-15 minutes.
- Crusty Bread Loaves: Makes about 3 loaves of crusty bread. Prepare dough through step 4. Instead of forming into 6 balls in step 5, divide the dough into 3 pieces. You can freeze 1 or 2 pieces for later use (see make ahead tip). Round into a ball as best you can and place onto a lined baking sheet. Cover lightly and set aside to rest for 30 minutes. The dough will spread out a bit. Brush with egg wash, score with an X, and bake at 400°F (204°C) for 30 minutes or until the tops and edges are golden brown.
- Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
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 90 minutes. I use my oven for this warm environment. See step 3 above.
The dough will be 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 about 20 minutes.
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.
Carve out a deep hole in the bread. Doesn’t need to be perfect. Just use a knife.
Add your soup and enjoy.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I am using this recipe now as my go to for bread. I have made the bread bowls and they came out fantastic. The bread stays fresher longer than any other bread that I have made. Last time at 3 days it was still as fresh as the first day. Thank you for such a wonderful versatile recipe.
Excited to try this, but I can’t have olive oil. Do you think substituting with another oil would change it too much?
Hi Amanda, you should be able to swap with another oil with no problem. The taste may be slightly different. Let us know what you try!
I have a bunch of active sourdough starter. How do I convert yeast to starter for recipes such as this?
Hi Amy, we haven’t tested our recipes using sourdough starter, but let us know if you decide to try. We’d do a search online to find suggestions on conversion rates. There are many good resources out there!
I need to make bread bowls for the Super Bowl party at our church. Can I freeze the baked bowls? I will be away on that day.
Yes, absolutely! See step 10: You can also freeze the baked bread bowls for up to 3 months, then thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.
I’m trying to make a football shaped bread bowl large enough for a party with 30 people, going to fill it with humus. Can I make one big football shaped bowl out of this recipe? Bake time? Adjustments?
LOVE your recipes! HUGE fan!
Sounds delicious. This dough is great for shaping, though I’m unsure of the bake time when baking it as one larger “bowl.” For an accurate test, the bread bowl would be done when an instant read thermometer reads the center as 195°F (90°C).
Hello, any good substitution for the egg wash at the end? Id like to save the egg and only plan on making 3 bowls, half the batch. Please let me know, hoping to have this with chili tonight 🙂
Hi James! Brushing with milk will work as well.
I tried to make these last night but didn’t have enough bread flour. I divided the recipe by 3 to just make 2 bowls and ended up using a mix of 1/3 bread flour and 2/3 all purpose (enriched/bleached.. not my favorite option). The dough mixed together really well then I realized I forgot the oil! Added it in and mixed it in aggressively to the dough as best I could but I think adding it tol late had an effect. The texture still seemed right, thick soft and just a little sticky. The dough rose a lot but I think may have over proofed. Collapsed pretty fast with a poke and after punching down and dividing, the dough balls seemed smaller than they should have been. They rose decently with the 20 min second rise, but not as much as I anticipated. Didn’t score very cleanly and didn’t rise enough in the oven. Tried to enjoy just on the side of soup but was pretty disappointed. Im sure these come out great when made properly but mine were a failure.
FANTASTIC! I’ve made bread before but never bread bowls. The recipe says 6 bowls; I made 8 to make them smaller – but came out completely able to hold a full cup of soup/chowderbisque. Without having mixer, I used the old fashioned term called “elbow grease” – just mixed in every cup of flour til incorporated. Baked 25 min. since I made 2 extra bread bowls. I cannot thank you enough! Success!!!!!!
Fantastic Recipe! I couldn’t find any at the supermarket and decided to give this a try. Easy, quick and they looked beautiful. Cut the recipe in 1/2 since I only needed 3 bowls and as Sally mentioned, simply cut the recipe in half. I made zero changes to the recipe as it is perfect as is.
How long should you let them cool before cutting and serving?
Hi Sarah, cool until you are able to safely handle them. The longer you cool, the easier they are to cut open!
I think this recipe would be dairy and egg allergy friendly without the egg wash. Any suggestions for a substitute that skips the milk and egg?
Hi MJ, you could brush the shaped dough balls with non-dairy milk.
Could you make this low carb with almond flour?
Hi Meagan! We don’t recommend almond flour in this bread bowls recipe.
This recipe was amazing! My family and I just ate them off the baking sheet because we didn’t have any soup and warm bread is the best. For next time, I was wondering if I could stuff the dough balls with cheese and then bake them?
Can’t see why not! We do something similar with our pizza pull apart rolls.
I made the dough in the bread machine and it came out perfect!
Hi Sally,
I live in a rural area in Tennessee where our local stores do not carry goodies like bread bowls. If I want them, I have to drive about 40 miles to the nearest “big town” in hopes that I can find them there.
I wanted to make a bacon potato soup for dinner tonight. It’s best when served in a bread bowl so I decided I’d try to make my own. I jumped on Google to find a recipe and there you were.
I printed it out and set to work.
Your detailed instructions and cheerful guidance made it seem as though it would be failsafe… and it was.
The bread bowls were delightful. The crust has just the right crunch and slightly chewy texture (perfect!) with a tender bread in the middle.
Absolutely amazerful!
My husband was thrilled and raved about how good they were. This is a recipe that will be used often not only because its so good but because its so versatile. I cant wait to try adding goodies like roasted garlic and herbs to the dough.
I am truly looking forward to trying many more of your recipes and thank so much for sharing them.
Sign me,
An Old Country Gal,
learning new tricks and playing with food.
We’re so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this recipe!
Rather than make bowls, I did 1 loaf and 16 rolls. I baked the loaf on a sheet pan at 400° as directed. I did 6 rolls in a muffin tin, 6 in an 8×8 glass dish, and 4 on a baking sheet. As instructed, I baked them at 350° for 20 minutes, but they weren’t remotely browning. I raised the temp to 375 for another 5 minutes. Their internal temperature was over 200, so they were definitely done, just not the same lovely brown as the loaf. I think next time I’ll try them at 400 for 15 min. FWIW, we prefered the shape and crust on the ones in the muffin tin, then the baking sheet, then the baking dish. Nice bread with a good clean flavor and lovely chew.
Made this recipe the first time for soup bowls.. was so awesome, I wanted to try the rolls… so made a batch, and for half the recipe, decided to try to use up my leftover pulled pork. Made 6 circles, put pulled pork and shredded cheese in the middle, pulled up the sides and pinched close. Egg washed, sprinkled w parm cheese, 40 mins in 350 oven and yum!!
Easy and tasty, but the bowls were too big for us – next time I will divide into at least 8 dough balls. I sprinkled oregano and coarse salt on top after the egg wash and brushed with some garlic butter when they came out of the oven. I did with creamy chicken soup, but these would compliment any soup or chili… so many ideas…
Love this recipe! Do you think this would work for the bread component of my stuffing? Or would I be better off with your artisan bread recipe (love that one too!)? I would like to be able to say I made my stuffing entirely from scratch!
Hi Debbie! This would be excellent as the bread in stuffing. Let the bowls (or whatever shape you end up making it) get a bit stale for a day.
Hi Sally,
I’m just curious about the first instruction to pour the warm water over the yeast and then add the sugar later, since I’m used to adding the sugar right away with the yeast. Is there a reason for this or does it make a difference one way or the other? Thanks for all you do, I love your recipes and thoughtful explanations!
Hi Emma, you can get away with it either way in this recipe. That being said, these days I typically add the sugar during that 1st step and it would be fine to do that here.
Could this recipe be made in a bread machine with the dough setting and using fast rise yeast?
We haven’t tested it but let us know if you do!
I made the dough with fast rise yeast and it turned out great
This was a great recipe to follow for my first time baking with yeast. Turned out terrific! Thank you Sally!! Will make again for other uses besides the bread bowl for my stew 🙂
Hi Sally, I preparing to make the bread bowls. My scale shows 780 grams of flour is about 5 cups of flour. Should I use 5 or 6 cups of bread flour?…Thanks..Vic
Hi Victor, we always say that “A cup isn’t always a cup, but a gram or ounce is always a gram or ounce.” Basically, when in doubt go by the weight!
Can I make bread bowls out of your artisan bread recipe?
Hi Abbie, this recipe is really best for bread bowls!
I’m making these today. If I refrigerate the dough overnight, do I need to let the dough come to room temperature before continuing with step 4 or use the cold dough?
Hi Sydney, you can remove the dough from the refrigerator and continue with step 4 — you do not need to let the dough come back to room temperature.
I made these today to have with broccoli and cheddar soup. They are wonderful. My (picky) husband was thrilled!! Thanks for another great recipe!
Good, will definitely flavor dough next time. Lacked flavor.
Can we use AP flour or do we need to use bread flour?
Hi Laura, you can use all purpose flour, they just won’t be quite as chewy.
These are soo good. Easy to follow.
Hello! I was planning on making a spinach dip and I wanted to use this recipe as a bread bowl that would hold the dip inside. I know I would probably have to make a bigger bread bowl out of this recipe. What would you suggest? Should I half the recipe and make that half all into one bread bowl? And if so how would that change the baking time? Thank you I look forward to your response 🙂
Hi Sofia! You can make them larger — some readers have had success making four large bread bowls. We’re unsure how just one large bowl would bake up. We recommend following the dough as written and dividing into the larger bowls. We’re unsure of the exact bake time for the larger size. Let us know what you try!
Hi Sally, I’d like to try this guy with my sourdough starter. Can you help me out with the measurements of starter, flour and water? thanks so much!! Your site is my go to
Hi Tyanne! We haven’t worked with sourdough starter so we’re unable to share any advice/tips for incorporating it into this recipe. Let us know if you give it a try!
Can this be made with gluten free flour?
Thank you!