The Wide World Of Pretzel Bowls!

The Best and easiest pretzel bowl recipe.

Welcome to the wide world of pretzel bowls!!!I

I love all things bread bowls when it comes to serving soups, so when we decided to do something a little different for St. Patrick’s Day a pretzel bowl seemed like a perfect vessel for our beer cheese soup!

Making these is no different than making any other pretzel, you’re just doing it in larger volumes. These have a slightly sweeter flavor for the ‘meat’ of the pretzel, but they have the perfect salty sweet moment with the salt on the outside. Once you put the beer cheese soup inside the bowl, it’s a chef’s kiss moment!

I like to keep my blogs simple so here are the main take aways:

This recipe makes 4 x 6-8” pretzel bowls. You’ll need a couple of baking trays to proof and bake on.

One of the key things about making a pretzel look and taste like a pretzel is the baking soda boil. You’ll add ¾ C baking soda to boiling water to make an alkaline solution. This creates a chemical reaction, called the Maillard reaction, that causes the amino acids and sugars to react with each other and in turn, create a beautiful brown appearance and give that pretzel flavor when baked.  It also helps to create the thin brown crust while locking in the fluffy soft pretzel core.

You’ll need a sieve or some type of metal strainer to extract the large bowls from the boil easily. You’ll also need something to help flip the bowls over so both sides have contact with the baking soda boil. We used slotted spoons, but chopsticks can work well too.

This recipe uses an egg wash in addition to the baking soda boil to create a beautiful hard glistening crust and a way for the salt to stick to the outside. You can choose not to do this and just spray the bowls after they bake with water and sprinkle the salt on top then. Or, you could do melted butter after they come out of the oven and apply the salt then.

You’ll need at least 1.5 hours of proofing time and another of 20min of baking time, so plan accordingly if you are making these for dinner. 

You ready to dive in??

Let’s go make some pretzel bowls!! Pretzel Bowl Recipe

Prep time: 2 hours

Bake time: 20min

Makes 4 x 6-8” pretzel bowls

Ingredients

2 packets active dry yeast

½ C brown sugar

2 C warm water (~100-110F)

⅓ C melted butter

5.5 AP flour

¾ C baking soda

1egg

Coarse Kosher salt

Yeast Activation

1. Put your warm water, brown sugar, and yeast into a mixing bowl. Mix together and let sit for 5-10min to activate the yeast. When it is nice and foamy, you are ready to go!

Dough

1. Gradually add in 5.5 C of AP flour to your activated yeast mixture.

2. Knead for 5-10min in your mixer with your dough hook. If doing by hand, pour onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 5-10min to get gluten activation going.

3. Cover dough in a large bowl with a damp cloth and let rise for one hour.

4. Split the dough into 4 equal sections with a sharp knife. I use a pizza cutter because it makes it easy. 

5. Use a lightly floured counter to roll these small sections into a bowl. Be sure to pull the dough and tuck it under to create a nice bowl shape while trying to avoid a large seam on the bottom. (See the video on how I do this). 

6. Place on your baking sheet with either a silpat or parchment paper underneath. You can usually fit 2 bowls per sheet.

7. Cover with a damp towel again and let rise for 20-30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 450F and start boiling your water.

Boil

1. Preheat oven to 450F and whisk the egg into an egg wash.

2. Bring 8-10 cups of water to a boil. 

3. Slowly add ¾ C baking soda in small amounts at a time to avoid bubbling over. Make sure it is completely dissolved.

4. Place your pretzel bowls into the water one at a time. Boil on each side for 30 seconds. Use chopsticks or two large spoons to help flip the large dough rounds.

5. Use a sieve or strainer to help remove the bowls to your baking sheet.

Bake

1. Paint egg wash onto bowl. You can skip this and opt for melted butter after they come out of the oven.

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2. Use a sharp knife or bread lame to cut an X pattern into the top of the bowls.

3. Sprinkle coarse sea salt onto top of bowl.

4. Bake at 450 for 20minutes.

5. Remove and let cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

1. Cut into the top of the bowl and carve out bread to create a bowl. 

2. Put back into the preheated oven to toast inside for 10-15min to help keep your liquid inside from making the bowl soggy. 

3. Add your favorite soup or dip and enjoy!!

Putting these together is sure to be a crowd favorite and instantly elevate soup night. They could be a great option for a dip vessel as well. Just add some mini pretzel bites for beer cheese soup or a great spinach dip. Voila, instant party appetizer success!

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Watch the full video on YouTube here:

I hope you enjoy!

Tag me in your pretzel bowl creations: #cookwithnicole Follow along on our socials for more recipes, tips, and tricks!