This copycat Cheesecake Factory brown bread is soft, slightly sweet, and molasses rich with an oat dusted crust, just like the famous restaurant bread basket made at home.
Course Baked Good, Breads
Cuisine American
Keyword Brown Bread, Brown Bread Recipe, Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread
In the body of a stand mixer with the hook attachment, add the warm water, yeast, and sugar, stir a few times to combine. Let sit for 5 minutes until bubbly. While waiting, in a medium-sized bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, coffee powder, and salt, set aside.
2 ½ cups warm water, 2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 3 cups whole wheat flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Once the yeast is bubbly, add the honey, molasses, and melted butter, stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir it in, scrape down the sides as needed.
¼ cup honey, ¼ cup molasses, ¼ cup unsalted butter
Add 2 & ½ cups of the bread flour and stir it in until combined. At low speed continue to add bread flour a little at a time until the dough comes off the sides of the mixer, if it is still sticking some to the very bottom of the mixer that’s okay. (How much bread flour you use depends on how humid it is out that day.) Turn the speed up to medium-high and knead the dough for 6-7 minutes. If you see the dough start to stick to the sides again, add a tablespoon of the bread flour at a time until it is clean again.
3-4 cups bread flour
Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Add the dough and spray the top of the dough with cooking spray. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let it double in size, about 45-90 minutes.
cooking spray
Punch down the dough in the bowl. On a lightly floured clean work surface divide the dough into 4ths. Using your hands roll them out into long logs. Place them into the sections of a baguette pan. Spray the tops of the loaves with more cooking spray and sprinkle with the cornmeal or rolled oats. Slightly press it in so it sticks. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel again and let proof for 30 minutes, they should almost double in size again.
cornmeal or rolled oats for dusting
While proofing preheat the oven to 375°F. Optional, score the tops of the baguettes with a razor or sharp knife. Place the baguette pan directly into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Bake until the outside of the bread is no longer shiny and is crusty looking. You can temp the bread, if it has reached an internal temperature of 200-210°F it’s done. Let cool slightly, cut and serve!
Notes
You can top this with either corneal or oats, we like oats since that is what they do at Cheesecake Factory.
This can be frozen, see my tips above.
Make sure that you score the bread to help with expansion while baking.
You can halve or double this recipe, it makes 4 loaves.
You can also serve with salted butter or honey butter.