Five Grain Bread from Hamelman's "Bread"

Wow!  If you ever want to try a WONDERFUL straight dough multigrain bread.  I strongly recommend the 5 grain bread from Hamelman.

I needed a straight dough, and needed to bake today to relieve some stress.  It was worth the effort to round up the ingredients that I didn't already have.  This bread came out of the oven a few minutes ago, and I'm delighted.  It was to make 3 1.5 lb loaves.  Even though I weighed the ingredients, I came out with 5 lbs of dough, so I made 4 2-oz rolls with the extra 1/2 lb of dough I had after forming the loaves.  Yeah, I know, only 3 rolls in the picture.  How do you think I know how good the bread came out?

Aside from ending up with great bread, I learned a lot from making this bread.  This was my first bread using a soaker, and I was afraid it wasn't wet enough, as the soaker quickly absorbed all the water (soaker is corn meal, wheat bran, rolled oats and flax seeds).  I felt like this was an improvement in my shaping and slashing techniques, though I still have plenty of room for improvement.  I proofed two loaves in brotforms (the round and one oval) and the other in a cotton tea towel I had floured and rigged to provide some support to the sides of the loaf.  Next time, I'll keep a little closer eye on it and either tent or lower the heat, as it 's a bit more brown crust that I'd like for the main loaves, especially the round loaf that was on the top shelf of the oven.  This is definately a bread I'll make again.

I'll post a photo of the crumb after I cut the big loaf tomorrow morning for breakfast for the kids!