>Hey, Roy, how long would you recommend soaking the cracked wheat
before
>kneading it in?

Ola Gonorio ( el mucho)Dineri<g>?
I have already stated it in my previous posts; please try to review it.

> How do you account for the moisture of the hydrated
>cracked wheat in the water requirement of the recipe?

A baker need not worry being precise in quantifying the amount of
water in the soaked grain in the same way an accountant does in
balancing his books to be accurate to a cent.<g>
Here ....Its just based on pure commonsense......And also unsoaked
grains present in the bread is hard for the teeth to chew and can
help abrade the tooth enamel.
You do not soak the grain and just add it to the dough then you, then
you will end up with a dough that dries faster due to moisture
migration (from the dough to the seeds); but if you pre soak the
grains then the so called moisture transfer will be minimized (if
not prevented).

>Bill, Samartha has commented that bread starts going stale as soon as
you
>remove it from the oven.

That is what every freshly baked bread does following the
thermodynamic law or entropy<g>.There are no exceptions.
Therefore the only possible way the baker does, is to slow the staling
process by producing a moist and good textured bread..

A properly baked multi grain bread made from a dough with presoaked
grains stays moist longer than a similar bread dough that uses the
grains without being prehydrated.
Going back to the original issue....
The problem here is that the original poster question is how comes his
bread (appear to ) feel and taste stale after a few hours when others
don't.
Therefore its not actually stale but drier in texture which can be
comparable to a stale bread.
Therefore I suggest a means to improve its texture.
Ciao

Roy