The Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread is everyone’s favorite. The bread is rich with molasses, brown sugar, honey and cocoa powder, giving the bread richness and depth. Now you can make this bread at home and enjoy it twice as much.
Do you love homemade breads? If so, then try our Cinnamon Swirl Bread or our Homemade Whole Wheat Bread.
Why I Love This Recipe
- Easy bread to make
- The flavor is a bomb!
- Great copycat you can make at home
- Easy recipe to double
- Goes great by itself with butter or with honey, jam or savory dishes like soup
Helpful Items For This Recipe
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small portion from qualifying purchases at no extra charge to you.
Kitchen Aid Tilt-Head Stand Mixer 4.5 Quart, Onyx Black
French Rolling Pin for Baking, Tapered Design Natural Beech Wood
200 Pcs Unbleached Parchment Paper Baking Sheets, 12 x 16 Inch, Precut Non-Stick
Copycat Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread Ingredients
There are a few ingredients that make Cheesecake Factory bread brown, and they are molasses, honey, brown sugar and cocoa.
Recipe Ingredients
Warm water – This allows the yeast to come alive. Yeast is a living organism, and warm water activates the yeast.
Molasses – This not only gives richness and sweetness to the bread but also color and aroma.
Honey – Another sweetener that also gives flavor too.
Brown sugar – Again, this gives sweetness and a lot more flavor than plain granulated sugar.
Instant yeast – If you use active dry yeast, increase to 2 ½ teaspoons and make sure to let your yeast proof and get bubbly and active in the water and brown sugar before continuing with the recipe. With any yeast dough, the flour amount varies depending on the weather outside and the humidity and temperature of your kitchen.
Bread flour – I do not recommend subbing all-purpose flour in place of bread flour.
Whole wheat flour – You can use all bread flour instead of whole wheat if you don’t have whole wheat flour. The taste and texture won’t be quite as similar as the bread at Cheesecake Factory, but it will still be delicious.
Cocoa powder – This is an unusual ingredient, but adds more depth again to the bread and also gives it its gorgeous color.
Butter, softened – You can use salted or unsalted butter. The amount of salt in 2 tablespoons salted butter vs. 2 tablespoons unsalted is so small there will be no difference in your final results.
Salt – This brings out the flavor in all the other ingredients.
Oats – For garnishing the tops. You can use either quick oats or old fashioned for the tops of the bread.
How to Make Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread
Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, molasses, honey, brown sugar, and yeast. Give it a quick stir with a spoon or fork. It doesn’t need to be fully mixed together.
Attach a dough hook attachment and add 1 ¾ cups of the bread flour, all the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, butter, and salt. Mix on low speed until totally combined.
If the dough is sticky, add an additional 2-4 tablespoons of flour at a time until the dough is soft but sticks to itself more than it sticks to the sides of the bowl. It will still be slightly tacky (but not sticky). If you over-flour this and the dough isn’t tacky, you will end up with a dryer cooked bread. Knead in the mixer for about 4-6 minutes.
Remove the dough briefly to a counter or your hand, spray the bowl with cooking spray, return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.
Line 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Shaping The Dough
Once the dough is doubled in size, remove from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 pieces for sandwich-sized loaves or 3 pieces for large baguette-sized loaves. Roll each piece of dough into a rectangle about 4 inches wide and 5-6 inches long (for sandwich size) or 6 inches wide and about 10-12 inches long (for large baguettes).
Roll up longwise and press down to seal. Pinch the ends to seal and tuck slightly under the loaf to make it log-shaped. Place on prepared baking sheets, about 3-4 inches apart.
Score each roll 3-4 times for smaller loaves and 6-8 times for larger loaves diagonally with a sharp knife or bread lame. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush water over the top of each bread followed by sprinkling a light amount of oats on top.
Spray plastic wrap with cooking spray and very lightly drape over the dough. Let them rise another 30-45 minutes until not quite doubled in size.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F while the dough rises for the second time.
Baking The Dough
Bake on the middle rack for 25-35 minutes. The small sandwich-sized loaves will bake faster than large ones. The bread is done when it lightly springs back when pushed or when the internal temperature reaches 190 F.
Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire cooling rack.
Best if eaten the day it’s made.
Recipe pRO Tips!
FAQS
Mixing
You can make this by hand by mixing in a large bowl until it gets too hard to mix with a spoon. Transfer to a clean counter and knead by hand for at least 8 minutes.
Storage
Store completely cooled leftovers in a zip top bag or airtight container.
Freeze in freezer bags for up to 2 months. Rewarm from frozen for about 10 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
Can I Make this bread using a bread Machine?
Absolutely, but to get the loaves like you see in the pictures I would just use it to make the dough and let it rise.
DO YOU LOVE HOMEMADE BREAD AND WANT MORE?
We love baking bread here at the Nolands. And we have many varieties; here are a few of our favorites.
Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup warm water
- ¼ cup molasses
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoon instant yeast *see note
- 1 ¾- 2 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3-4 tablespoons oats for garnishing the tops
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, molasses, honey, brown sugar, and yeast. Give it a quick stir with a spoon or fork. It doesn’t need to be fully mixed together.
- Attach a dough hook attachment and add 1 ¾ cups of the bread flour, all the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, butter, and salt. Mix on low speed until totally combined.
- If the dough is sticky, add an additional 2-4 tablespoons of flour at a time until the dough is soft but sticks to itself more than it sticks to the sides of the bowl. It will still be slightly tacky (but not sticky). If you over-flour this and the dough isn’t tacky, you will end up with a dryer cooked bread. Knead in the mixer for about 4-6 minutes.
- Remove the dough briefly to a counter or your hand, spray the bowl with cooking spray, return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.
- Line 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Once the dough is doubled in size, remove from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 pieces for sandwich-sized loaves or 3 pieces for large baguette-sized loaves. Roll each piece of dough into a rectangle about 4 inches wide and 5-6 inches long (for sandwich size) or 6 inches wide and about 10-12 inches long (for large baguettes). Roll up long wise and press down to seal. Pinch the ends to seal and tuck slightly under the loaf to make it log-shaped. Place on prepared baking sheets, about 3-4 inches apart.
- Score each roll 3-4 times for smaller loaves and 6-8 times for larger loaves diagonally with a sharp knife or bread lame. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush water over the top of each bread followed by sprinkling a light amount of oats on top.
- Spray plastic wrap with cooking spray and very lightly drape over the dough. Let them rise another 30-45 minutes until not quite doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F while the dough rises for the second time.
- Bake on the middle rack for 25-35 minutes. The small sandwich-sized loaves will bake faster than large ones. The bread is done when it lightly springs back when pushed or when the internal temperature reaches 190 F.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire cooling rack.
- Best if eaten the day it’s made.
Let us know what you think!
We’d love to know what you and your family think! Make sure to leave a review below and follow us on your favorite social network!