Whole Wheat Seed Bread

We haven't made this bread in quite a while.  But we have recently moved to a new state and can't seem to find a whole wheat bread that gets both thumbs up from all of us at the local grocery stores.  So Sunday my husband pulled this old recipe out.  This may become a new Sunday tradition! :)  We ALL LOVE this bread!

Ingredients:
1/2 C warm water
1/3 C unsweetened applesauce
3 TBLS active dry yeast

3 1/2 C warm water
1/2 C honey
1/2 C molasses
1/2 C applesauce
3 TBLS lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
9 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C ground flax seed
1 C quick cooking oats (rolled oats work great too)
1/2 C chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds
3/4 C cracked wheat or bulgur wheat
1 TBLS sea salt
5-6 TBLS vital wheat gluten

Directions:
Stir together the 1/2 C water and 1/3 C applesauce in a small bowl.  Dissolve the yeast in the mixture, let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes.  Pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl with 3 1/2 C warm water, honey, molasses, applesauce, lemon juice and eggs; stir together to combine well.
In a separate bowl combine the whole wheat flour, flax seed, sunflower seed (or walnuts), cracked wheat (or bulgur wheat) and salt.  Stir the flour mixture into the yeast mixture until a smooth dough forms.  Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (Or let the Bosch do the work for you :)) Spray a bowl with olive oil and place dough inside.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Spray 3 loaf pans with olive oil.  (We pull off enough for a mini loaf, spraying that pan too, then shaping the rest into the 3 loaves.  That way when it comes out of the oven, as a family we eat a mini loaf. :)  We get hot bread, but we don't eat a whole large loaf, because believe me, we could! :) ) Punch down dough, shape into loaves and place in the pans.

Allow to rise in the pans until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375.  Bake 40-50 minutes, or until the loaves are golden and crusty looking.