Bread from Ruby Tuesday's: dark light sweet bread

[Apocalypso]

Some of you may only be familiar with the Ruby Tuesday's dark croutons. Years and years ago they also used to serve warm dark brown bread with dinner. I just did a spin on the web looking for a recipe. I see some recipes referring to the bread served at Outback - I can't say that I have eaten at Outback often enough to remember the bread.

I found a recipe on the King Arthur Flour site, Dark & Soft Restaurant Dinner Rolls, as well as a few blog recipes. One named Outback as its inspiration (https://www.melskitchencafe.com/sweet-molasses-bread/print/), while this one named Cheesecake Factory. https://www.kitchentrials.com/2016/03/16/cheesecake-factorys-honey-wheat-brown-bread/

Anyone try these types of recipes? I was making croutons out of leftover whole wheat bread and that for some reason made me think of the bread at Ruby Tuesday from a long time ago.

 

[Colleen3]

I have thought of them recently and am looking for a copy cat recipe. The only thing I found was Boston Brown Bread which has raisins and I presume is a sweet quick bread. Please post if you find anything. Thank you.

 

[Apocalypso]

Hi, Colleen (new member)! I'm glad I got an Email notifying me of the reply or I'd have missed it. Not spending as much time online as I used to, outside of the bustling lost-and-found-pet hobby which keeps me busy trying to match up pets.

Last Thanksgiving, I made an assortment including gluten free corn muffins (yummy), some Hokkaido milk bread rolls (which weren't my best go at it but were light and fluffy) and this King Arthur Flour attempt at duping the dark restaurant rolls. https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/dark-and-soft-restaurant-dinner-rolls-recipe They were disappointing... didn't quite taste right, and I'm guessing it was not rich enough. I saw other recipes that had molasses. BTW I used extra dark cocoa powder, and since I followed the metric recipe, I replaced just a little more of the white flour with cocoa by weight. Still not as dark as I expected. My next attempt might be to make something of a sweet rich brioche dough but just make it really dark with cocoa powder. I think that would approach the moistness of the dough I remember. Then again, sometimes what I remember isn't quite right. I ran across a favorite mustard that has become harder to find (Inglehoffer's sweet hot mustard) and either they changed the formula or it tastes different than I thought it did.

Maybe I'll give the Mel's Kitchen recipe a go sometime. I don't have vital wheat gluten on hand but I'm sure I can find it somewhere, plus it's optional. BTW it was a good lesson in not baking a recipe for the first time for a dinner party -- though I did take the whole mess of rolls in my slow cooker, wrapped in linen towels, and they stayed warm with a 20-minute drive and who doesn't love warm bread?

 

[Rosebud💜]

Hello, I worked at Ruby Tuesdays and the croutons are made with a sweet brown bread not pumpernickel like some think so I'm assuming it's the same bread you're talking about that they used to serve at table. It's not the Boston bread recipe more like Irish brown bread or a dense honey wheat. It was in little loaves and we cut them into pieces before freezing and deep frying. It was immediately tossed in a very small amount of butter with lots of garlic and onion powder and some salt and white pepper

 

[Rosebud💜]

Hello, I worked at Ruby Tuesdays and the croutons are made with a sweet brown bread not pumpernickel like some think so I'm assuming it's the same bread you're talking about that they used to serve at table. It's not the Boston bread recipe more like Irish brown bread or a dense honey wheat. It was in little loaves and we cut them into pieces before freezing and deep frying. It was immediately tossed in a very small amount of butter with lots of garlic and onion powder and some salt and white pepper

I forgot to mention that it's not a dark bread more of a lighter to medium color brown in bread form and gets it's deep dark color from the frying process!

 

[Steelman]

I haven't tried making Ruby Tuesday's bread myself, but those restaurant-inspired recipes you found sound promising! To get closer to the flavor and texture you remember, consider tweaking the molasses content or experimenting with different flour mixes. Adding a bit of coffee or cocoa powder can also enrich the flavor and color. It's all about experimenting, so adjust the ingredients to your taste and keep us posted on your results. Happy baking!

 

[Mona]

I totally remember those dark croutons at Ruby Tuesday’s! The bread you’re thinking of sounds familiar too. I haven’t tried the exact recipes you found, but King Arthur Flour usually has great ones, so their Dark & Soft Restaurant Dinner Rolls could be a good bet. You might want to add a bit of molasses or honey for sweetness and some cocoa powder to get that rich color, similar to what you remember. If you try one of these recipes, let us know how it turns out—it would be fun to recreate that old Ruby Tuesday’s vibe!