5 Grain Cereal Bread

Or at least that's what I think the hot cereal is. I get it from the bulk bin at the natural food store and mix it with my steel cut oats for my breakfast oatmeal. I made two loaves, one of them was the February bread for my father-in-law.

This is how this bread came about:
(For two loaves)
100 g 5 grain cereal (not flakes) (about ½ cup + 2 Tbsp)
112 g water (½ cup)
224 g milk (1 cup)

Soak overnight. Then cook on medium heat for about 12-13 minutes, stirring occasionally until liquid is soaked in. Add
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp agave (or other sweetener)
towards the end of the cooking

I tried soaking some whole wheat flour to get the fermentation going (Tassajara style).
350 g whole wheat flour (~2½ cup)
¼ tsp instant yeast
1½ cup water
Mix the three ingredients into a paste. Let sit for an hour

Ingredients at this stage

To make the final dough, the following are added in:

67g bread flour (½ cup)
150 g whole wheat flour (~1 cup)
1¾ tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp agave nectar (or other sweetener)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1¾ tsp salt

About 2 T bread flour were added during kneading.
I almost always let the dough sit for 5 minutes after all the ingredients come together and then knead for about 10 minutes

12:31 pm: After kneading for 8-10 minutes

2:20 pm: Long but good first rise

2:25 pm: Ready for second rise

3:24 pm: Second rise is done

3:36 pm: The boule got a sprinkling of sesame seeds before proofing.

4:13 pm: Ready for the oven

Decent rise and coloring

Bigger holes than usual, possibly from soaking the whole wheat?

Does that look like an evil eye?

Notes
Date: January 31, 2012
Recipe: My own recipe
Flours: Whole wheat flour, bread flour
Bread specific ingredients: 5 grain cereal
Sweetener used: Agave nectar
Liquid: Water, 1% milk


Comments: For being my own recipe this bread turned out pretty well. Whenever I don't feel like following a recipe, this is becoming my baseline:
450 g flours
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sweetener
1 Tbsp oil
Water/Milk to put the dough together, about 1½ cups.
In this case, it is important to soak and cook the hot cereal really well. This bread tasted good. It wasn't very sweet, sliced decently well, but not very thin. The biggish holes in the crumb were a surprise. I am guessing they are from the extra hour of soaking the whole wheat with a bit of yeast. That got the gluten development going. I should try that method again sometime to confirm.