Few things in life captivated me in the same way Panera bread bowls in 2004 did. During a time of low-carb diets and tumblr thinspo, it felt like sitting in a Panera Bread, with a literal bowl of bread filled to the brim with cheddar broccoli soup, wearing my clearance-rack Hot Topic finery, was the ultimate act of anarchy. A bread bowl never tasted better than in those formative years before I succumbed to the same pressure and started seeing a bread bowl as an excessive nutritional luxury. Revisiting them as an adult never hit that spot in the same way. Maybe they’ve changed the recipe, or maybe nothing tastes sweeter than a simple act of rebellion.

This past year I fell down the sourdough rabbit hole and have been slowly playing and experimenting with each new batch. Naturally, with my excitement for fall approaching, I was day dreaming about those long-forgotten Panera bread bowls of my past, and imagining the indulgent experience of creating one from my own sourdough to spoon my fall soups from.

And if you’re going to make a bread bowl for your fall soups from your sourdough, why wouldn’t you make it look like a pumpkin?

Beyond the typical difficulty of sourdough (which is more time consuming than difficult, once you get used to it) shaping them into pumpkins is very simple. With just some baker’s twine, it only takes a few extra seconds to transform your ordinary loaves into perfect pumpkins.

How to make Pumpkin Shaped Sourdough Bread Bowls

You can use whatever sourdough bread recipe you prefer, since this is more about shaping the bread than about the taste. This is my go-to sourdough bread recipe that I used to make mine. It always works great for me and I love the taste, but you already have a favorite, feel free to stick with that! Want to go all-in on the pumpkin? Why not try an actual pumpkin sourdough recipe!

Step 1 – Initial bread-shaping : You’ll want to decide on your final bread-bowl size during the initial shaping. I recommend keeping them personal-sized, so rather small. The initial shape size I found best for me was about a palm-sized ball of dough. In the end, you can really make them as small or big as you like, so feel free to play around a bit to find what size works best for you.

Step 2 – Pumpkin Shaping : After your cold proof, when you would typically score your loaves and prep them for the oven, is when we’ll add the pumpkin shape. Using oven-safe baker’s twine, loosely wrap the twine around each loaf, crossing and flipping over as you go, a total of 4 times. You should end up with 8 sections (that look like a pumpkin!). Tie off at the top.

Step 3 – Baking : Place the whole loaf in the oven and bake according to recipe directions.

Step 4 – Cooling and cutting : allow to cool COMPLETELY (at least 2 hours) before removing the twine. Once cooled, carefully cut a circle at the top to remove. In order to fit soup in, you will also need to gently scoop out some of the bread inside, being cautious to not cut through the sides of the bread.

Optional : to create a “stem” look, I used a sprig of rosemary! Plus it smells amazing

Truly the perfect meal on a crisp autumn day. Now all we need is the actual fall weather to arrive!