I am addicted to bread baking. I love eating any kind of bread – especially when it is fresh out of the oven warm bread slathered with butter. It’s the ultimate comfort food and quite possibly my love language. One of my favorite things to eat at Cheesecake Factory is the brown bread that they bring to your table while you are waiting for your meal. Honestly, I could just sit and eat the bread and then go home, it’s that good. It reminds me of squaw bread that I had growing up – has kind of a molassesy, malty flavor – so delicious. (They have a similar bread at Outback too.)
Well now I can eat a very close replica of that fabulous bread any time I want here in the comfort of my own home with this copycat Cheesecake Factory bread recipe and guess what? So can you! Slightly sweet, with a hint of molasses flavor, and sprinkled with oats, this is my new favorite bread to make. This recipe makes 4 small loaves, but you could shape it in to rolls instead if you wanted. (If you do that reduce the baking time.)
A French bread pan works beautifully for this kind of bake, but if you don’t have one, don’t fret – a normal baking sheet will do just fine! (However, if you are looking to treat yourself – this is not an expensive pan to own.) Also, the cheesecake factory bread is normally a bit darker in color, however, the ingredient list on the Cheesecake factory bread says they use caramel coloring in theirs and we aren’t adding food coloring in this recipe as it doesn’t change the flavor at all, so this bread will be just slightly lighter in color than the original.
Which whole wheat flour you use will also affect the color – I actually love the Wheat Montana Prairie Gold whole wheat flour when I bake with whole wheat – it’s lighter in color and made from white wheat, so it has all the goodness of whole wheat but is a bit lighter in both flavor and color. (You can pick it up at Walmart and other grocery stores – they also do a darker wheat flour, but if you are new to whole wheat, maybe start with this one.) I’ve used both to make this bread and it’s fabulous with either, but feel free to use what you have on hand.
Finally, I have included a little ice trick when you put the bread in the oven to bake in the directions below. This helps give you a slightly crispier, chewier crust – if you don’t want to do it, you can totally skip that part, but I love what the steam from the ice does to the crust of any baguette type bread. Read through the recipe in it’s entirety before starting to make bread so you get more familiar with the steps you are going to be taking! It makes it easier!
Ingredients:
- 1-1/4 cup warm water
- 2-1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1-3/4 cups bread flour plus up to 1/4 cup more as needed
- 1-3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1-1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp canola oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 Tbsp molasses
- 1/2 Tbsp white cornmeal
- Oats for garnish
Instructions:
- In a small bowl mix the water, yeast and sugar and let sit for 3-5 minutes until frothy.
- In your mixing bowl whisk together the bread flour, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder and salt.
- Add the yeast mixture, oil, honey and molasses.
- Using the dough hook, mix on medium-low speed for 5 minutes. (If you hand knead you will need to do it 10-12 minutes.) If you find your dough is not coming together or is too sticky, add up to 1/4 cup additional bread flour- just add it 1 Tbsp at a time so you don’t add too much. Once done, the dough should not stick to your hands.
- Form the dough lightly in to a ball and spray around and under it with non-stick cooking spray.
- Let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until doubled in size.
- Line a baking sheet or French bread pan with parchment paper and sprinkle with the white cornmeal.
- Punch down the dough and divide in to four equal pieces. (I weigh mine to make sure they are close.)
- Roll out each piece in to a rectangle and then roll tightly, press down gently, then pinch and tuck the ends to close. Roll lightly with your hands to complete shaping – they should look like a log, mine were about 8-9 inches long.
- Place each roll on the prepared baking sheet, spacing at least a couple of inches apart. Score 3-4 times on each loaf with a sharp knife.
- Brush with warm water and sprinkle each loaf with some oats.
- Cover loosely with a towel or saran wrap and let them rise another 30-40 minutes until they are almost double again.
- Preheat the oven to 350 with 1 rack placed in the bottom position and 1 rack in the middle position. Place a spare baking sheet on the bottom rack.
- Remove the towel or saran wrap and place the bread pan on the middle rack.
- Throw 4-5 ice cubes on the spare baking sheet on the bottom rack and close the oven door immediately.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Serve with butter!
Dough after first rise.
Formed in to logs and scored with a sharp knife.
Brushed with water and sprinkled with oats before second rise.
Copycat Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread
EQUIPMENT (Amazon Associate Links)
Ingredients
- 1-1/4 cup warm water
- 2-1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1-3/4 cups bread flour (plus up to 1/4 cup more as needed)
- 1-3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1-1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp canola oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 Tbsp molasses
- 1/2 Tbsp white cornmeal
- Oats for garnish
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix the water, yeast and sugar and let sit for 3-5 minutes until frothy.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the bread flour, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder and salt.
- Add the yeast mixture, oil, honey and molasses.
- Using the dough hook, mix on medium-low speed for 5 minutes. (If you hand knead you will need to do it 10-12 minutes.) If you find your dough is not coming together or is too sticky, add up to 1/4 cup additional bread flour- just add it 1 Tbsp at a time so you don’t add too much. Once done, the dough should not stick to your hands.
- Form the dough lightly in to a ball and spray around and under it with non-stick cooking spray.
- Let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until doubled in size.
- Line a baking sheet or French bread pan with parchment paper and sprinkle with the white cornmeal.
- Punch down the dough and divide in to four equal pieces. (I weigh mine to make sure they are close.)
- Roll out each piece in to a rectangle and then roll tightly, press down gently, then pinch and tuck the ends to close. Roll lightly with your hands to complete shaping – they should look like a log, mine were about 8-9 inches long.
- Place each roll on the prepared baking sheet, spacing at least a couple of inches apart. Score 3-4 times on each loaf with a sharp knife.
- Brush with warm water and sprinkle each loaf with some oats.
- Cover loosely with a towel or saran wrap and let them rise another 30-40 minutes until they are almost double again.
- Preheat the oven to 350 with 1 rack placed in the bottom position and 1 rack in the middle position. Place a spare baking sheet on the bottom rack.
- Remove the towel or saran wrap and place the bread pan on the middle rack.
- Throw 4-5 ice cubes on the spare baking sheet on the bottom rack and close the oven door immediately.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Serve with butter!
Came out perfect!
Ah, I’m so glad, it always makes my day to hear that! Thank you for the comment and rating! 🙂
Is there a different oil I can use besides canola? We are low-tox and canola is the 1st oil on the no-no list.
Yes, you could sub vegetable oil with no issues. 🙂
Can you use Avocado Oil instead of vegetable and canola oil?
Yes, you can – avocado has a little richer, more buttery flavor than canola or vegetable, but that should not be a problem with bread. 🙂
I used coconut oil and it was amazing!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
Hello,
Is the whole wheat flour supposed to be bread flour as well? I bought wholemeal bread flour (from uk) and used it as well as the regular white bread flour today and the bread didn’t turn out well…was extremely dense and so was wondering if that was the reason?
No, the wheat flour was not bread flour!
This turned out just perfect! My family had lunch at Outback today and I was challenged to make more of their delicious bread. This recipe was easy to follow and the bread got rave reviews and they have already asked for more!
This makes me so happy to hear! Thank you for commenting and rating, it makes my day! 🙂
Perfection! But you made one mistake. 8 servings? Surely it’s just one! LOL. Not sharing!
Haha, you have made my day – I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you for the rating and the comments. 🙂
Hello
Can I use vegan milk instead? Like almond milk?
What about skimmed milk?
Thank you for sharing the recipe 🙂
Can’t wait to try it
I have not tried almond milk or skim milk so I don’t know how it would affect the final outcome. Let me know if you try it! 🙂
I think I would try using soy milk!
Hey I tired out your recipe today and when I made the dough and kept to rest it started to kind of melt and kind of got gooey I wanna know why it happened
Did you end up substituting anything? You may have to add additional flour to compensate. Are you in extremely hot weather?
Can you use 2 bread loaf pans instead of rolling them out in to logs? Thanks for the recipe we love the Cheesecake Factory bread and look forward to trying this recipe.
I have never made these as loaves, but if I did I would probably try cooking at 350 for 25-30 minutes which is what I do for most of my bread loaves – you can check the internal temp for the loaves with an instant read thermometer – you would want it to be around 190 degrees for it to be done! If you try that let me know – I’d be interested to know how it turns out!
Thank you so much for this recipe. It tastes exactly like the Cheesecake Factory bread. I followed the recipe as written including the ice cubes. Delicious!
Ah that makes me so happy! Thank you for commenting and rating – this always makes my day. 🙂
This is the first bread I’ve ever tried making and it came out better than I could have imagined! Tastes just like Cheesecake Factory’s, I didn’t take into consideration I am just one person, but how do you keep the bread good? Should I freeze it or store it in the fridge?
Yes, you can freeze it! Just wrap in plastic wrap then place in a freezer bag. It should last up to 3 months in the freezer. 🙂 Thank you for commenting it makes my day! 🙂
How long would I need to bake if I just wanted rolls instead of logs?
I would start with 15-20 minutes! Then check to see if they need any extra, but 20 minutes is usually plenty for rolls!
Came out perfectly and exactly what I was craving! Can’t wait to make the next batch, my whole family loved it!
Ah, this makes me so happy! I’m so glad you like it. Thank you for commenting and rating!
Hello
I just tried the recipe! Can’t wait for it to finish baking 😍😍
Just had a few questions
Do you usually turn on the bottom and top of the oven when baking? I put the ice cubes at the bottom in a tray with parchment paper but it started smoking and he paper turned brown 🙁
The top of the bread was starting to burn a bit so had to turn off the top of the oven
I’m using an electrical stove and oven. Not sure if that makes a difference.
Thank you for your help in advance 😁😁
Hi Marleen! I do not put parchment paper on the tray that has the ice cubes. Also, I have not cooked with an electrical oven that gives me that option – I would bake the loaves in the middle rack and if it starts to get too brown, just lighly cover them with some foil so they can complete baking without browning more. Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
Hey I don’t have molasses in my country so can I leave this ingredient or should I substitute it with something else ?
I have not tested other ingredients, so you may need to experiment. Do you have black treacle? Black treacle is an English version of molasses. Or dark corn syrup has molasses in it, but would not give you the exact same flavor.
Not I don’t have any of those can I use extra honey instead
Honey is way sweeter than molasses – I think I would try maple syrup before honey? Again, I have not tried any of these, so it will definitely change the outcome to use any substitute.
Hi there! I don’t have bread flour right now and can’t go to the store, but I do have whole wheat and all purpose. (and cake flour, who knows why.) Could I use any of those as a substitute, or would it come out wrong?
You can substitute all purpose for the bread flour, it won’t be quite as “chewy” as with bread flour, but the loaves should still turn out lovely 🙂
Hi, do you use bleached or unbleached flour?
I usually used bleached!