I always keep some alternative flours in my freezer, so that we aren't forever eating bleached white stuff. It's a great place to keep them fresh, and also even a short stint in the freezer kills the larvae or eggs of the pantry moth.

I'll tell you what NOT to use whole grain flour in and that is pie. LOLOLOL. My DD, when she was a young teen decided to surprise me by baking a pie when I was at work. She used the whole wheat instead of the white and ......uhm........well it was not forgettable.

You can usually replace the white flour with whole grain flour for up to 1/2 of the specified amount with little change from the original texture/raising. Add gluten, usually 1½ to 2 tablespoons per cup of whole grain flour. Yes, one must experiment a bit, but that's mostly to get the texture and lightness you prefer. BTW, gluten is best if kept frozen, because its shelf-life is extremely short. Just measure the frozen gluten powder right into the measured whole grain flour, stir and it will be thawed before the yeast needs it.

If one uses molasses or honey instead of sugar, then the amount of liquid added should be adjusted downwards, to about ¾ of the equal amount. That means that if one changes ¼ cup white granulated sugar to ¼c [which is 4 tblsp] honey and the recipe calls for 1 cup water, remove 1 tablespoon of water from the cup. (That sounds worse to read than it is to do!). Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added, so it is somewhat wetter than white but not as wet as honey... I find it easier to toss in an extra teaspoon of flour for each tablespoon of brown sugar.

OR one can use ¼ less honey than the specified amount of sugar. That can get a bit tricky because the yeast needs "X" amount of sugar in order to rise properly and lessening the specified amount of sweetening can cause the bread to be dense/heavy. I don't really recommend it, but you may find it fun to play around.

Are you doing everything by hand, or are you using a bread machine?

A basic bread recipe will be 4 cups of all purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsps of salt, yeast (the amount doesn't matter, as little as 1/2 teaspoon will do it...but the less yeast, the longer it will have to rise. To complete the bread in one day, use 5 teaspoons, or 2 yeast packets) and 1 1/2 cups of water...mix, knead until smooth and elastic, cover and let rise until double, punch down, rise again,shape and bake.
That's basic, then you can sub up to 1/3 of the flour with wholegrain, wheat or rye, or you can add sweetener to taste...molasses, honey, sorghum, even maple syrup.
I often add dry milk to bread, and/or soy flour. Sometimes I add nuts or dried fruit. If the bread is too stiff to kneadwell, addalittlemorewaterafewdrops at a time, too soupy addmore flour....and taste the dough as you go. Sometimes it needs more salt, sometimesmore sweet.
And remember, things like oat bran, Red River cereal, Wheatena also make good additions.
Linda C

I'm currently having fun with The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. There are ALL kinds of breads in there. Gluten free, funky flours I've never heard of (Teff, Amaranth?!?) and many recipes use simple starters. I just made a free form loaf from a starter that began in the bread machine and finished on a pizza stone in the oven. Heaven. I highly recommend the book. Just reading about where some of the recipes come from and how different areas of the world use the more obscure flours that we mostly don't use is really interesting.

Bob's Red Mill in my area has a line of various flours and gluten. http://www.bobsredmill.com/

Great so far! More please. I am not using a bread machine.

Linda,

When do you add the additions if you want them?

Depends on what the additions are....if flours when youmixthe bread...if fruit andnuts, after the first rise.
Linda C

This book is a classic for healthy bread recipies. My favorites were whole-wheat sourdough (and it has instructions for making a starter) and O-Konomi-Yaki (Japanese Vegetable Pancakes)-not bread, but really good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tassajara Bread Book