Make the popular bread at home! This Copycat Outback Steakhouse Bread recipe is an easy way to enjoy the famous bread – no restaurant or steak dinner required!
We don’t go to sit-down restaurants very often, but when we do, it’s all about which restaurant has the best bread.
This recipe is nearly an exact copycat of one of my favorite breads – the honey wheat Bushman bread at Outback Steakhouse. The bread is soft with a light sweetness from the honey and the molasses.
This recipe is made with simple ingredients, and it tastes delicious. Serve it on a cutting board with a generous amount of butter for the total restaurant experience!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Warm water
- Vegetable oil
- Honey
- Molasses – I like to use robust molasses, but regular or light molasses will also work. I don’t recommend blackstrap molasses as it can be bitter.
- Whole wheat flour
- Cocoa powder – Dutch processed cocoa powder will also work and will give you a slightly darker loaf.
- Yeast
- Salt
- Bread Flour
- Oats
How to make copycat Outback Steakhouse bread
Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a dough hook, stir together water, oil, honey, and molasses until mixed well.
Tip>> You can also mix this recipe up by hand in a large bowl. I don’t recommend using a hand mixer, though, for this one.
Step 2: Add wheat flour to wet ingredients.
Step 3: Add cocoa, yeast, and salt, and stir until blended. Allow mixture sit for 10 minutes.
Step 4: Stir in bread flour, one cup at a time, until dough clings to hook and almost clears the sides of mixer, about 3-4 minutes.
Step 5: Cover bowl with greased plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise in the bowl until doubled, about 30-60 minutes.
Step 6: Divide into 2 pieces. Cover each piece with greased plastic wrap, and let dough rest for 5 minutes.
Step 7: Shape pieces into loaves, and sprinkle with oats. Place each loaf in a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan.
Step 8: Let dough rise until doubled, about 30-60 minutes. Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 350 F.
Step 9: Bake at for 30-40 minutes.
Bread baking tips
- Water temperature matters! It’s important to use water that’s the correct temperature. Water that’s too hot will kill the yeast, and water that’s too cool will give you a slower yeast activation.
The best way to measure the temperature of the water is with a kitchen thermometer. If you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, the water should feel like warm bath water. If it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for the yeast. - Have a cool kitchen? If your kitchen is cool, it can slow the rising time.
An easy way to create a perfect spot for your bread to rise it to turn your oven to preheat 350F for exactly 60 seconds. Then, turn the oven off. This will give your oven just a bit of warmth, and it helps to encourage the bread dough to rise.
Can I freeze this bread?
You can! This kind of bread freezes well.
Simply bake the bread as-directed. Then, let the bread cool to room temperature on a wire cooling rack.
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and place the wrapped loaf in a resealable freezer bag.
Storage
Outback bread should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. It will keep for up to 4 days.
More bread recipes!
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Copycat Outback Steakhouse Bread Recipe
Equipment
- 9×5 loaf pan
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups warm water 100°-110°F
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 3 ½ cups whole-wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2-3 cups bread flour
- rolled oats for dusting loaves
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a dough hook, stir together water, oil, honey, and molasses until mixed well.
- Add wheat flour to water mixture.
- Add cocoa, yeast, and salt, and stir until blended.
- Allow mixture sit for 10 minutes.
- Stir in bread flour, one cup at a time, until dough clings to hook and almost clears the sides of mixer, about 3-4 minutes. You may not need to use all of the bread flour.
- Cover bowl with greased plastic wrap.
- Allow dough to rise in the bowl until doubled, about 30-60 minutes.
- Divide into 2 pieces.
- Cover each piece with greased plastic wrap, and let dough rest for 5 minutes.
- Shape pieces into loaves, and sprinkle with oats.
- Place each loaf in a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- Let dough rise until doubled, about 30-60 minutes.
- Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 350 F.
- Bake at for 30-40 minutes.
Video
Notes
- Molasses – I like to use robust molasses, but regular or light molasses will also work. I don’t recommend blackstrap molasses as it can be bitter.
- Cocoa powder – Dutch processed cocoa powder will also work and will give you a slightly darker loaf.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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adapted from Frieda Loves Bread
Originally published March 6, 2013. Updated on February 11, 2019. Updated again on 1/5/22 with new photos, tips, and information. The recipe was also updated to omit the caramel coloring.
Reader Interactions
Love this recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
Charlotte says
I have made this recipe several times and our whole family (including kids, grandkids, and in-laws) simply love this bread. It will be one of the breads on our Easter table this year!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad to hear that! Happy Easter!
John Potts says
Does the recipe make 3 loaves or 2 loaves?
The first time I made it, it made 3 loaves and the second time it made 2 loaves
The second time I made it, I added the whole wheat flour to the bowl when it was still warm from the water that was warm and also I only needed 2 cups of the bread flour as well
Now, am I supposed to add the whole wheat flour when the bowl wasn’t warm anymore and then, I would have to add all 3 cups of the bread flour and then the recipe would have made 3 loaves?
My apologies, this time I didn’t taste the bread the second time that I made it and I know it’s late to ask my girlfriend
If you can answer my question, I’ll really appreciate it
Thank you
Kate says
Hi! The recipe makes 2 loafs. You will add the whole wheat flour without letting the water cool. You may find that the amount of flour that you need to add varies when you make it. There are a number of factors that can affect how much flour you need, including the humidity on the day you make it.
HMcIntire says
I’ve made this recipe a few times. It always turns out so good! Lately I’ve replaced the active yeast with sourdough starter. It works beautifully!
Kate says
I’m so glad! Thank you for sharing that!
Charlotte says
Super delicious bread! Thank you!
Kate says
Thank you!
Deanna says
Wow! Amazing flavor and super easy to follow the recipe. I will definitely make this again!
Kate says
Thank you!
Michael says
Can you use a bread maker for this recipe?
Kate says
I haven’t tried that, but I’ve heard from people who have, and they’ve said that it worked well for them.
Suzie says
If I had mini loaf pans how long would I need to bake them?
Kate says
Hi! Unfortunately, I’m not sure what size the pans are, so I can’t give timing suggestions.
Mark Adams says
How did the mini lofts work out?
Delaney says
Oh boy, if the dough turns out like batter, does that mean I need to hold back some of the water? I live where it is *extremely* humid. New-ish to baking bread, but I think this might be my problem. It was more like batter than dough (very fresh yeast, too).
Fortunately, it still tasted delicious, but oooooh, was this messy! I thought for sure I was going to have disastrous results. Really stunned that it still baked up well and tasted delicious. Just trying to figure out why I ended up with batter instead of dough.
Kate says
One thing that you’ll find when you bake bread is that humidity will affect how much flour you need to add. The amount of humidity in the air can even affect how much you need to add from one time that you make a bread recipe to the next time.
If your dough is like a batter, keep adding flour to it until it clings to the dough hook and clears the side of the bowl. Batter won’t cling and clear the sides of the bowl. Please let me know if you have questions! There’s a learning curve when baking bread, but you’ll get it!
C. Tarver says
Can I make the dough in a bread machine?
Kate says
Hi! I haven’t tried making this recipe in a bread machine to say for certain.
Jennifer says
I hope you tried it in your bread machine because it worked like a dream. I did have to halve the recipe for it to fit though.
Kate says
Thank you for sharing that!
Jess says
Can this be tweaked for a bread machine?
Kate says
Hi! I haven’t tried to make this recipe in a bread machine to say for certain.
Scott says
I made it yesterday and it was delicious. I didn’t have the honey so I substituted it with maple syrup instead
Kate says
Thank you!
Denise G says
What brand cocoa do you use?
Is it baking cocoa and unsweetened? (Never baked with cocoa so anxious getting wrong thing). Going to try to make this for my bread loving little guy :-) Thank you!
Kate says
I’ve used different brands, like Hershey’s unsweetened baking cocoa, and I haven’t noticed a difference when using different brands. Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Kayce says
The best bread I’ve made to date!
I didn’t read the recipe well when I planned to make it so I ended up using only AP flour and it worked fine and I used 1/4 cup of butter instead of oil. Turned out AMAZING and I plan to make it weekly!
Kate says
Thank you so much!
May says
Can I use instant coffee instead of cocoa
Kate says
Hi! I haven’t tried that to say for certain.
Bridgett says
Before I get into my experiment, the jist is that the bread tastes just like from Outback and the recipe process is apparently extremely forgiving! What a fantastic recipe!
I tried making this recipe using the dough setting in the bread machine (with 2 cups of bread flour) thinking if I didn’t actually cook it with the machine then it would be fine… unfortunately, it was too much dough for the machine to mix well so after the first mixing part was over I mixed it with a spatula and dumped it into a glass bowl to rise. It doubled in about 40 minutes and then I dumped it out and cut it in two. I put one half in a greased bread pan and the other half in an oval banneton. I let them rise for 30 minutes. I dumped the half in the banneton out thinking to shape it but it may have overproofed because it wouldn’t really hold the long loaf I tried to shape. That loaf turned into a weird fat somewhat flat oval in the oven (with an extremely tough bottom crust that stuck to the baking sheet). The one in the bread pan came out looking perfect. I also baked them for 35 minutes and I think 30 minutes would’ve been fine.
Anyway, the bread still turned out great even after all of that! Seriously tastes just like the bread from Outback! I think if you halve the recipe you could definitely use a bread machine for it, at least for the dough part. Then just dump it, shape it, and check to see if it needs to rise again (I often need to let it rise again because I use regular yeast like this recipe calls for). When I make it again, I will try that and see how it turns out. I may even try one to cook in the machine and see what happens. I typically don’t like the shape of the loaves the machine makes but I think I wouldn’t mind with this type of bread.
Kate says
Thank you so much for such a detailed comment! I appreciate you sharing your experience with making this recipe in the bread machine.
Bridgett says
Experiment complete! Again, the jist; you can totally do this in the bread machine!
I made half the recipe exactly as written and the other half the recipe I made in the bread machine. I put in all of the liquid ingredients first, then the flours, then the yeast in an indent, then cocoa, then salt off to the side. I turned it on the dough setting and let it go while I made the other half of the ingredients per the recipe. I used 2.5 cups of bread flour total (1.25 cups in each half), which was what I had ended up using the first time I made the recipe. The dough in my bread machine was done at approximately the same time as I put the other loaf in the oven. I shaped the dough from the bread machine and let it rest about 20 minutes before putting it in the oven on a baking sheet. I baked each for 30 minutes. The loaf from the bread machine actually turned out quite a bit softer! I can’t think of why that would be except not putting it in the bread tin to rise. The sizes were really comparable after the first rise and second rise so all I can think is the tin inhibited the bread from growing more in the oven? Anyway, both loaves turned out beautifully. And the question is answered; yes, this recipe (halved) will work in the bread machine!
Michele says
I am about to try this recipe and am wondering if it can be made in a bread machine.Since it makes 2 loaves I would think you would have to half the recipe.
Kate says
If you try it in the bread machine, I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Alison says
Just a quick FYI, clicking the print button on this recipe reopens this exact page in a new tab.
Kate says
Thank you for letting me know! I think I fixed it; it’s working on my end. Please let me know if you have any issues with it. Thanks!