Simple and Delicious Homemade Pretzel Bread Bowl Recipe

This Pretzel bread bowl recipe can make just about any kind of soup better!  I’ve served them with broccoli cheese soup, chili, and chicken noodle soup, to name a few, and it just makes soup a meal–a very special meal.

Homemaking Notes- From me, Kim:)

This recipe for golden brown pretzel bread bowls has been such a fun recipe for my family.  It has made just a week-night meal extra special.  We’ve also used pretzel bowls to make a bridal or baby shower so much fun.  Every guest gets a bowl and then they fill it with their creamy soup of choice.  Make them ahead and they freeze beautifully and taste wonderful. Preparing ahead is a necessity if you’ve invited 50 guests to a shower!  We’ve thrown quite a few showers around here and having a menu that includes homemade pretzel bread bowls is always a treat for those who attend!  

Science of the Pretzel Bowl

Gluten

Whenever I talk about bread, I have to start by talking about gluten.  Gluten is the protein that we need for good yeast bread.  It is responsible for that lovely chew we get from a pretzel bread bowl.  It also allows for a lofty rise when we’re making bread.  How do we ensure that we’ve developed enough gluten?  By allowing our dough to knead adequately.  We can look at it and know that when it’s clearing the sides of the mixer bowl, we’re probably there; but we can also confirm this by doing the “window pane” test.  

Simply take a small piece of dough and shape it into a square.  Continue to gently stretch it until it becomes a thin film in the middle, without breaking.  When you see light pass through it, you know the gluten is developed enough, elastic enough.  If it breaks easily, just continue kneading a bit more and check it again.  

Alkalinity–That sounds so technical!

What makes a pretzel bowl different from a standard bread bowl?  Actually, the dough begins pretty much like any other yeast bread or basic pretzel bread recipe, but before you bake them, you place them in boiling water that has a fair amount of baking soda dissolved in it.  What does the baking soda do?  The alkaline solution actually causes the pretzel to brown to that familiar pretzel color.  It also imparts that unique flavor we all enjoy in a soft pretzel or delicious pretzel buns.  

To get an even browner pretzel bowl, you can bake the baking soda first!  You don’t have to do this, but it does get you to that more dramatic brown color.  You simply spread your baking soda on a foil lined sheet pan and bake it at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour.  Baking it first makes it even more alkaline, thus more browning.  Feel free to skip this step–I have many times–and you will still have beautiful pretzel bowls.  (I just love to think about all the science behind baking:))

Ingredients

• Flour: I generally use bread flour, but I’ve also used all-purpose flour with great results. Bread flour can just give you a little more lift in the bread due to the higher protein content. However, don’t let not having bread flour stop you from making pretzel bread bowls. All-purpose flour will make a wonderful bowl. You could incorporate some whole wheat flour if you’d like, but don’t go too crazy, as it will not taste like a classic soft pretzel.
• Salt: This recipe calls for coarse salt in the dough, and pretzel salt for sprinkling on top. If you can’t find pretzel salt, you can just sprinkle coarse salt on top.
• Sugar: The sugar in this recipe doesn’t make the bowls sweet at all. It simply balances the flavor beautifully. I use white sugar, but you could also use brown sugar with great results.
• Yeast: I use this yeast for these pretzel bowls. It’s always reliable and easy to work with.
• Baking soda: Just your basic baking soda from the baking section of your grocery store.

The Process of Making Pretzel Bread Bowls

Optional baking of the baking soda

(You can totally skip this step if you like). First, bake your baking soda on a foil lined baking sheet at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour. You can bake a larger amount than you need and store it in an airtight container for future pretzel bread bowls, or just soft pretzels. (You can actually use this exact recipe for pretzels as well!) Again, you can also skip this step and have wonderful pretzel bread bowls, just not quite as brown.

Mix your ingriedients

Using warm water, add your ingredients to a mixer bowl. You can use a stand mixer like a Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook. I use a Bosch mixer, because I usually want to triple this recipe and that’s just too much dough for a standard mixer to handle.  If you have a stand mixer, then in the bowl of a stand mixer you make one recipe which will make four pretzel bread bowls.  Don’t add all the flour at the start for best results.  Leave about a cup out until you see that your dough is going to need it.  Mix your dough with a dough hook (or mixing bowl) and if it still seems wet, add a little bit more flour until your dough is “tacky,” (feels slightly sticky when you touch it but doesn’t stick to your fingers). and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Knead for approximately 5 to 7 minutes, until you can window-pane your dough.  At this point, your dough is ready to rise!

Time to rise

Place your dough in an oiled glass bowl, covered with a damp towel or plastic wrap, to rise for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until doubled in size.  This stage is called “bulk fermentation.”  (You’ll sound so smart saying that) 

Once your dough has risen, transfer it to a very lightly floured surface and divide into four equal pieces.  I do this by using a scale so that all the bowls look the same, but you can just eye-ball it if you don’t have a scale.  

Shaping your bowls

Next, you’re going to shape dough.  At this step, you want to build tension on the outside of the dough by “pulling the dough” toward you, repeatedly, until the outside of the dough seems taught and smooth.  Try not to over-flour the counter as it makes it more difficult to shape the dough because the dough needs to sort of be pulled by the counter.  The more you do this, the more you’ll get a feel for the process.  The tension you’re building on the surface of the dough will help it rise and maintain a bowl shape, the goal is a tight ball!  Transfer the dough bowls to a parchment lined sheet pan that is dusted with cornmeal.  You can also use Silpat or simply cornmeal.  Be generous with the cornmeal as it will prevent the bowls from sticking once they’re baked.

final prepping

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees f.  Doing this now will have the oven ready when you are ready to put the bowls in.  In addition, prepare your egg wash and have your coarse salt or pretzel salt ready to go.  

Allow the bowls to rest for about 20 minutes.  Important:  don’t let them rest too long because overrising at this point can lead to them collapsing a bit when you put them in the baking soda water.  We’re not really wanting them to rise much.  We’re just giving the gluten you’ve developed a little time to relax.  

boil and bake

While they’re resting, get your baking soda water ready by bringing the baking soda and water to a bowl.  Reduce to a simmer and begin dipping your bowls into the water.  Place them in the water for a quick soak, one at a time, (I did two at a time in a very large stock pot because I was doing quite a few), and allow them to simmer for one minute, flipping them once.  So, 30 seconds, flip, 30 seconds, remove to sheet pan they were resting on, with a slotted spoon or ladle.  

Once they’ve all been dipped in the baking soda water, brush each bowl with the egg wash and lightly sprinkle with pretzel salt.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the bread bowl is nice and brown or the internal temperature is 200 degrees Fahrenheit.  You can know this by using a Thermapen–insert it into the center of the pretzel bread bowl.  I just love the certainty that the Thermapen gives me.  I never have to guess if my bread is done.  Once they are cooled enough to handle easily, scoop the bread out of the middle (directions below in notes) and fill them with your favorite soup.

Voila!  

Your pretzel bread bowl is done, and you are a very popular person in your house! Enjoy the best part, eating them:)

Notes

• Freezing ahead: To freeze ahead, simply allow the bowls to cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap or foil, and freeze. When you’re ready for them, just get them out the morning you need them, and they’ll be ready for dinner.
• Scooping them out: To make them into actual bowls, simply slice the top off and use a spoon to carefully scoop out the bread until you have a fairly hollow bowl. Make sure to leave enough on the bottom and sides to stand up to hot soup!