I have a recipe from someone who used to sell this great bread at a flea market. My first loaf is certainly edible but I know it can be better but don't know what to do. His recipe has you make a porridge first using;

3 cups water  1 1/2 cups Red River Cereal, 1/4 cup wheat germ, 3/4 cups sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup flax seed. Bring to boil while stirring, cover, remove from heat and let stand 20 minutes. Add 3/4 cups molasses and 1/4 cup honey. Mix and store in plastic container in fridge.

poulsbo bread mix;

place ingredients in pan in this order.

2 T. oil    2 T. lt.cream  2T. sugar,  1 cup water,  1 cup porridge mix (above),  1/4 C. sunflower seeds. 1c white flour. 2 C brown flour. 1 1/4 tsp. fast rising yeast. 1 tsp salt.

I was nervous about the fast rising yeast as it didnt say to use a rapid bake cycle so I used regular yeast and white bread cycle,( I have a cuisinart machine and have found ALL recipes are best on white bread cycle and light crust, thus far) should I have done something else? If I use rapid yeast do I use the normal cycle or rapid. I understood rapid bread recipes were slightly inferior to the other.

My dough was extremely gooey so I blended a small amount of flour after the last kneading, it was soft  but not sticky at that point. I used the 1 1/2 # for size but maybe it should have been 2# ??

The loaf  tastes good but is heavier than I'd like. I also let it rise 15 min longer then called for as it didnt appear to be high enough. The other recipes I found on the net dont call for the porridge, but now I have 3 or 4 cups of the stuff that I hate to waste. Would appreciate any advice that might be out there. Thanx