The Fresh Loaf

News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Bread Bowl

  • Pin It
Trotski7's picture

Bread Bowl

Hey all,

I was wondering, is there a particular recipe I should use to make a bread bowl for soup?
I want to surprise my lady with a cream of chicken/potato/veggie soup in a bread bowl next time she comes over for dinner; although I can make bread pretty well I don't know how I'd make a bread bowl. I forsee it being a different recipe as my standard bread and that I would also have to make the crust harder on all sides of the bread so the soup doesn't leak out.

Would it be best to use a sourdough bread recipe? I've never made sourdough, but gosh.. I love me some sourdough and it would probably make a great bread bowl.

yy's picture

There's no single recipe that would work, but it's probably best to use a lean dough like a baguette dough that's not too wet. Shape it as a tight boule, and degas the dough aggressively as you're shaping so you don't get too many large holes. Jeffrey Hamelman's recipe works well. There are a number of good shaping tutorials on this site if you type in "shaping a boule" in the search box.

If you don't already have a sourdough starter, it'll take you at least a week to establish a new starter. If you're pressed for time, just make some non-sourdough this time around. It'll still be yummy with your soup, and I'm sure your lady friend will not have a single complaint about your thoughtful gesture. Regardless, you should definitely get a starter going. It might take some trial and error to get a handle on sourdough baking, but it's worth it. Good luck!

mrfrost's picture

KAF(King Arthur Flour) website has several(well at least 2) recipes for bread bowls.

In turn, I have made at least 2 of their bread bowl recipes, multiple times, with great results, used as soup bowls.

Most of their recipes have very detailed instructions, and/or accompanying step by step pictorial blogs.