Updated on |By Kate|203 Comments
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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!
If you’ve tried this copycat Outback Steakhouse honey wheat bread recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!
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5 from 90 votes
Copycat Outback Steakhouse Bread Recipe
Author Kate @ I Heart Eating
Course bread
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes minutes
Rising time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes
Total Time 1 hour hour 50 minutes minutes
Copycat recipe for Outback Steakhouse honey wheat bread
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
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 125kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 100mg | Potassium: 112mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 2IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg
Did You Make This Recipe?
Share it with me on Instagram @i_heart_eating and follow on Youtube @katedean and Pinterest @katedean for more!
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.
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Created by Kate
Kate got her first cookbook when she was five years old, and she hasn't stopped cooking since then! Her delicious recipes have been featured on Food Network, MSN, Better Homes & Gardens, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and more. When she's not cooking or baking, she can be found on her mini farm with her husband and her five kids.
Reader Interactions
Love this recipe?
Share your thoughts below and let’s chat! Make sure to connect with me on your favorite social platform below and show me what you made!
Jess says
Can this be tweaked for a bread machine?
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Kate says
Hi! I haven’t tried to make this recipe in a bread machine to say for certain.
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Scott says
I made it yesterday and it was delicious. I didn’t have the honey so I substituted it with maple syrup instead
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Kate says
Thank you!
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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!Reply
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!
Reply
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!Reply
Kate says
Thank you so much!
Reply
May says
Can I use instant coffee instead of cocoa
Reply
Kate says
Hi! I haven’t tried that to say for certain.
Reply
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.Reply
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.
Reply
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!
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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.Reply
Kate says
If you try it in the bread machine, I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Reply
Alison says
Just a quick FYI, clicking the print button on this recipe reopens this exact page in a new tab.
Reply
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!
Reply
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