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Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Molasses Bread - Cheesecake Factory style

This is a beautiful brown bread that comes very close to the bread that is served in the Cheesecake Factory. Warm bread slathered with butter is delicious and just melts in the mouth. In my opinion, this version of home baked bread is tastier than that served at the restaurant. 
I was able to make 5 decent sized loaves of bread and they lasted a few weeks. I stored each by covering tightly with plastic wrap and then foil and then freezing it. 



Ingredients
2 1/4 cups All purpose Flour or bread flour. I used all purpose flour
1 2/3 cups White whole wheat flour -I used roti flour (ashirwad aata). You can also use regular whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
2 1/4 tsp of Instant Yeast
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup blackstrap Molasses/regular molasses
1 1/4 Cup Warm Water
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 Egg lightly beaten with a tsp of water to make egg wash
1/4 cup of Oats

Method
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook add the flours, yeast, sugar, and salt. Mix until combined. Slowly add the honey, molasses and water. Mix until the dough forms. Add the softened butter and keep mixing until the dough forms. Knead till the dough separates from bowl.  You may need to add a little bit flour if it is still too sticky. Then knead the dough with hand till the dough is soft and smooth.
Grease a bowl large enough to hold double the volume of bread dough with some oil and place the ball of dough and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough double in size about 45-90 mins depending on ambient temperature. It will take longer on colder days.
Remove dough from bowl and divide into 5 equal parts and shape into logs. Place these on a well greased trays (I needed two cookie trays) and let rise till double in size. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Brush the tops and the sides of the bread logs with the egg wash and sprinkle with the oats.
Place the trays in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes of until ready. The easiest way to determine if the bread is well baked is to test the internal temperature. If it is 200F or more the bread is baked. Else you can also tap on the bottom and if it has a hollow sound it is baked.
The use of blackstrap molasses gives the bread a deep brown color. This bread has a slightly sweet taste and is delicious.


Tips
If kneading by hand, use the banging of the dough onto the kneading surface and then stretching with your palm strokes technique of kneading bread dough till a soft dough is formed.

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