Sweet Molasses Bread {Restaurant Knock-off}
This easy, delicious recipe for sweet molasses bread is just like the soft, tender loaves you get at your favorite steakhouse restaurant!
I should learn by now to never, ever, never-ever tell anyone that it’s been forever since I’ve been sick because the minute those words come out of my mouth, I swear to you, I have instantly the worst cold in a decade.
Healthy pride goeth before the fall, I suppose. That’s my reality this week.
After seriously not being sick in forever (I can say it out loud now since I’m already miserable), I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus. And for some strange reason, my HR department isn’t answering my phone calls about my allotted sick days. Weird.
Today, in the midst of feeling like my pounding head was stuffed inside too-small pantyhose, I remembered that I had a loaf of this sweet molasses bread hidden in the depths of my freezer and the realization almost made everything better.
A quick defrost in the microwave, several slices, and a healthy dose of butter later, I decided that sometimes self-medicating with bread is the best way to go (that and going to bed at 8:23 p.m. for several nights in a row).
We are in love with this bread and have made it too many times to count over the last few months.
Most of the remakes were in an attempt to get the perfect variation of ingredients – a slight hint of sweetness with the molasses and honey while keeping the beautiful dark color.
I’m not entirely sure why my kids go crazy for this bread but they do. The last two kids to celebrate birthdays have requested this bread as part of their birthday dinner and it’s their favorite thing to see in their lunch box.
If you’ve ever dined out at a popular steakhouse chain (like Outback and others), the sweet molasses bread they serve is always the best part of the meal, in my opinion, and the homemade version is even more delicious.
I’ve included some helpful tips and information in the notes below the recipe title but rest assured that this dough is a dream to work with. I hope you love it as much as we do. Just don’t forget to slather on that butter. It’s kind of a must.
While you contemplate why, how, when and where you’ll make this amazing sweet molasses bread, I’m off to arm wrestle my kindergartener for the last piece of our loaf and try to convince him he should try his 6-year old hand at making sweet molasses bread for his sick, old mother because it’s the right thing to do (actually, now that I’m typing that out loud, I’m not sure the mess would be worth it; maybe we’ll just dig in the freezer and hope for the good luck to find another misplaced loaf).
One Year Ago: My Favorite Lightened Up Egg Salad Sandwich
Two Years Ago: Candy Apple Pie
Three Years Ago: Spring Penne Pasta with Light Butter Sauce
Molasses Bread {Outback Knock-off}
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups warm water, about 110 degrees
- 1 ½ tablespoons instant yeast
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon unsulphured molasses
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened, natural cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons oil (see note)
- ⅓ cup (113 g) honey
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten, optional – see note
- 3 cups (426 g) white whole wheat flour
- 3 to 4 cups (426 to 568 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 to 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- Old-fashioned oats for sprinkling
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (or in a large bowl with a wooden spoon if powering through this by hand), combine the water, yeast, molasses, cocoa powder, oil, honey, salt, gluten (if using), and 2 cups of the whole wheat flour. Mix until combined.
- With the mixer running, slowly add the rest of the whole wheat flour. Start adding the white flour gradually until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5-7 minutes (about 10-15 if kneading by hand). The dough should be soft and slightly tacky but shouldn’t leave a lot of residue on your fingers if you grab a piece.
- Turn the dough into a large, lightly greased bowl, cover with greased plastic wrap or a light towel, and let rise until doubled, 1-2 hours.
- Lightly punch down the dough and divide into three equal pieces. Form into tight oval loaves and place on parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheets (I fit two loaves on one large, rimmed 11X17-inch baking sheet and the third loaf on another baking sheet). Lightly cover with greased plastic wrap or a light towel and let rise until puffy and doubled in size. Optional: right before baking, using a very sharp razor, knife or bread-slashing lame (I use this one from King Arthur Flour), cut three deep slashes in the top of each loaf.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the loaves for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and lightly brush with about a tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle with the oats and bake for another 5-7 minutes.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: inspired by this copycat recipe (sent to me by a longtime reader, Lien) and this recipe on Frieda’s site
259 Comments on “Sweet Molasses Bread {Restaurant Knock-off}”
I made these to go with Thanksgiving dinner. I made these into rolls and measured 1.5 oz of dough per roll. I did not put oats on top. Yum!!!
In my comment i forgot to say my bread did not raise at all.
I have been baking bread for over 50 yrs and this is the first time i have experienced this. I tried making this bread and did it by the hand method. I didnt have honey so used the equivalent amount of sugar. Used Active Dry yeast instead of instant. Other then than using a bit less water i followed the directions. Where did i go wrong? I am so disappointed. I see where others tried it and had success. Please help me out.
Make sure to check the expiration date on the yeast to make sure it isn’t expired. Additionally, swapping in active dry yeast for the instant yeast might be the issue – active dry yeast often needs to be proofed in warm water before adding to the recipe. Were you able to proof the yeast before using?
It’s even better than Outback’s bread.
It’s absolutely delicious!
Thank you so much for this incredible recipe! It’s a family favorite. I make it for my family each week and it turns out perfectly every time. I always weigh and measure carefully and appreciate your including metric for the flour.
I have a question, could this bread be made in a traditional loaf pan for sandwiches? If so, what would be the division of the dough and the baking time and any other adjustments you would suggest.
Thanks for sharing this recipe, Mary
Hi Mary, I’m glad you like this bread! I haven’t tried baking it in loaf pans, but it should work just fine. Do you have a kitchen scale? If so, I’d measure about 29-31 ounces of dough for each loaf (if baking in 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch pans).
Made these for our Valentine’s dinner, and my husband said (and I quote), “These are BOMB!” Next time I’ll just skip the oats on top, but truly they were perfection. I made them into rolls and they were beautiful, and tasty, and everything I could have hoped for. Thanks, Mel! 🙂
I dived into this recipe today, and was very pleased with how it came out. I just whipped it up in the stand mixer, I didn’t have vital gluten so I did the all bread flour instead of all purpose. It came out smelling so good, and it’s so soft. Will definitely make again!
I made this recipe today I found it a bit salty but my husband said it is not, we will eat this bread for breakfast as it is a bit sweet. I used my bread machine dough cycle and it was perfect, made a large loaf and 10 buns. I omitted the vital wheat gluten and used regular whole white flour instead of white, the dough was superb and so easy to handle. Thank you
This is sooooo good! My only problem was that my loaves burned on the bottom. Any idea how to prevent that? I put them on a light colored cookie sheet.
Hi Alex, try baking them one position up in the oven and/or decreasing the oven temp by 15-25 degrees.
Trying this as one loaf in the Dutch oven today, has anyone else had success with this?
Thanks!
Hey Mel!
Kind of a weird question, but what does the cocoa powder do in the bread? Is it for color, or is this like a sweet dessert bread? Sorry if this is a kinda dumb, self explanatory question….
Not a dumb question! It’s for color and to also deepen the color (but it doesn’t make this “chocolate” bread or an overly sweet bread).
Ahhhh, OK, that makes sense! Thanks Mel!