Bread Bowls!

I made potato soup and bread bowls for dinner tonight. Here's how they turned out:



I'd been planning to make the soup since we have a surplus of potatoes that are on the verge of going bad, and I'd been thinking of making some bread, so I thought I'd try making bread bowls. They turned out a bit smaller than I was expecting/hoping, and the inside was a bit denser than I expected. I'm thinking I let the dough rise too long before punching it down and forming the individual . . . loaves(?). If any bread-making experts are reading this, feel free to tell me what I might have done wrong.
We decided that potato soup probably isn't the optimal filler for bread bowls--it ends up being too starchy and the bread doesn't really absorb the soup (which I suppose could be a good thing, depending on your point of view). I decided that the line between creamy mashed potatoes and potato soup is very thin. I also decided that someday I should make bread bowls in the shape of potatoes, slice them open rather than cut the tops off, and fill them with potato soup, maybe with some sour cream on top.