My 55th experiment: Oatmeal flaxseed bread

One evening, my husband suddenly made a request for having a slice or two of sandwich bread for breakfast every day. Oh what a joy! More bouncy biscuit! So here comes my new experiment again adapted from KAF whole grain baking cookbook.

Recipe: Oatmeal flaxseed bread (1 medium loaf)

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup uncooked organic whole grain cereal (mix of oat, wheat and barley)
- 1+1/4 cups 1% milk
- 1+1/2 tp salt
- 2 TB honey
- 1 cup KAF all purpose flour
- 1 cup KAF whole wheat flour
- 2 TB oat bran
- 2 TB flaxseed
- 3 tp active dry yeast
- 2 TB vital gluten powder
- 2 TB olive oil
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour for adjustment
- 2 TB 1% milk for adjustment
- 1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Procedure:
1. Mix cereal, salt, honey in 1+1/4 cups milk and bring to a boil. Then allow to cool. When the temperature has dropped down to warm, mix in the yeast and allow to proof for 5 minutes.
2. Mix 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, flaxseeds, oat bran and 2 TB gluten in a large bowl. Add in the cooked cereal mixture. Mix well to form a dough ball. It may take some time (15-20 minutes of mixing by hand) because the water in the cereal slowly diffuses out to the flour. Allow the dough to rest a minute or so after every 5 minutes of mixing.
3. When the dough has formed completely, adjust the hydration level by adding milk or flour. In this experiment I need an additional 1/4 cup all purpose flour both to absorb the moisture and to develop the gluten.
4. After the dough is at the right hydration level, add in 2 TB olive oil and the crushed walnuts. Knead to  make the dough homogenous.
5. Allow to rest covered in a bowl until volume doubles.
6. Shape dough into a log. Grease a 8.5"x4" loaf pan. Place dough in pan to proof.
7. Preheat oven to 350F.
8. Bake loaf for 45 minutes. Turn it out and allow to cool on rack.

Results:
9:00am, cereal, salt, honey cooked with milk, allowed to cool, then mix with dry yeast:

9:04am, initial mixture of cooked cereal, flours, gluten, flaxseeds, and oat bran:

9:23am, initial dough formed:

9:32am, 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour and 2 TB milk added to adjust the hydration of the dough:

9:39am, a well-hydrated dough formed:

9:40am, dough ready to oil:

9:50am, dough being kneaded to develop the gluten:

9:53am, dough preparing to rest:

10:13am, dough rested 15 minutes:

10:32am, dough rested 35 minutes:

10:37am, dough's texture after rest:

10:39am, dough being shaped to a log:

10:39am, dough's height before proofing in pan:

11:38am, dough proofed 1 hour:

11:38am, dough's height after 1 hour of proofing:

12:37pm, dough proofed 2 hours:

12:37pm, dough's height after 2 hours of proofing, and before baking:

12:55pm, loaf baked 15 minutes:

1:16pm, loaf baked 35 minutes:

1:29pm, loaf baked 50 minutes, done:

1:29pm, thermometer coming out clean:

1:31pm, loaf's side:

1:32pm, loaf's bottom:

1:32pm, loaf's top:

5:37pm, loaf's top when cooled 5 hours:

5:38pm, loaf's height when cooled:

5:41pm, loaf yielding 15 slices:

5:42pm, a center-of-loaf slice:

5:42pm, a heel-of-loaf slice:

5:42pm, crumb's light oat color:

5:43pm, contrast of the crumb and the crust:

5:43pm, a bite:

5:46pm, how to enjoy it:

5:48pm, pepper jelly:

Observations:
1. As it turns out, this loaf is quite dense.
2. The taste of the loaf is rather good. There is the distinctive mild taste of oat. The walnuts give it a nice crunch.
3. This bread is slightly sweet, but it does not qualify to be a sweet bread. I find that this loaf goes very very well with a thin spread of pepper jelly.