LOL!! Annie, I admire your determination. i like using grams because it says it on the scale, and it's a smaller unit than an ounce. Makes the math easier. :) And you're absolutely right that a recipe is an approximation. I do find that weights are more accurate to that approximation than volume, so if I'm going to do a recipe I've never made before, I'd rather one that uses weight. Both are variable, but volume is more so, unless you sift, and then it's still a little more accurate. Perhaps that's less true if you live somewhere with wildly swinging humidity, though... These last few months, I've been learning how to make breads that are very different than the ones I'm used to, with different flour and different yeast. It was probably something I should have eased into, but I just leapt into the deep end and had some "interesting" results. It's very hard to judge if the dough is off if you don't know what it's supposed to be like to begin with. That's why I advocated looking for the adjectives. They help more than anything. Right this moment, I have a loaf from a new recipe in the oven. I started off trying to follow a recipe, which meant starting a very wet rye starter. The wheels came off halfway through, when the starter started dying and I just fixed it rather than worrying about the requirements of the recipe. Then I fixed the preferment to try to get back on track, and that worked. But then I sort of went my own way with the flour choice, and started adjusting back to the recipe, but kneaded and folded in the same bowl as it rose in to cut down on wash water, which worked, but I think it was meant to absorb more flour from the bench so I sprinkled flour, but it didn't cloak well, and I needed a second pan, and then it sank, so I changed it again to a sided pan and gave it some extra rise time. And it has the best oven spring of any of these new recipes I've tried! We'll see what happens when it comes out. So, yes, listen to your instincts and do what you think you need to to get it to come out, even if what you end up with isn't the recipe you thought you were starting with!

The yogurt shouldn't be a problem reacting with yeast. Yeast actually works best in a mildly acidic environment, which is why ascorbic acid is often mixed with dry yeast products. To improve the rise of breads containing wheat germ and whole wheat flour (which contains wheat germ), I always add an acid ingredient to counteract the gluten-damaging effects of glutathione in the wheat germ. Bacteria (in yogurt and also present in bread dough made without yogurt) produces those tasty acids in bread dough that improve the flavors of bread when we refrigerate it. The acidity already present in sourdough starters help sourdough breads keep longer, inhibit mold growth and also slows staling, and you'll see the same qualities in breads made with yogurt. -Grainlady

My husband says it was the best bread I ever made..........but then he says that with every loaf I make. I made 4 loafs last week and they have all been eaten so I wanted to make some more. I have some store bought bread that I need to use up but our homemade is so much better. I have made this recipe several times and it just keeps getting better. It's a slack dough so you don't get a real puffed up bread. one of these days I think I will make it in a dutch oven and see how it does....Anyway, this is a good bread to make.

If you're lucky, you've only begun your bread journey. ;-) It certainly depends on what you consider "bread".... because it's more than one thing from a single book. Before going gluten-free, all my breads were made with freshly-milled grain/seed/bean flour - which is a whole other branch of the "bread world" than lean breads (Italian and French breads) made with commercial flour (bleached/unbleached), water, salt and yeast and learning baker's percentages (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/professional/bakers-percentage.html). Lean breads were hardly ever on my bread rotation due to the lack of nutrition and the high-glycemic impact. I'm into whole foods. Back then (and also now, except gluten-free versions), I made all our bread, and not just loaves, but English Muffins, hamburger/hot dog buns, flatbreads, EVERYTHING - from freshly-milled flour. And that included the joy of receiving a type of starter called "Everlasting Yeast" , and a cryptic hand-written recipe for using it, from a 90+year old friend (which was used by her mother and given to her and her sisters when each one "set up housekeeping" after they each married) and learning how to make naturally-leavened breads, another distinct branch of the bread making world. After taking a lot of bread classes, and having taught even more (I taught "Bread-In-A Bag" alone over 50 times - http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/fn_bread_2006-01.pdf) which I taught to both children and adults for anyone just getting started; and I don't know how many bread machine classes over 2+ decades, the part I enjoyed the most was the science, and that's why I dearly loved the first 100 pages on the subject from CookWise by Shirley O. Corriher. Everything else after that was just good reading, with a few tips and tricks included here and there. I checked out every video and book on the subject from the library. I studied the subject for years, met with milling experts to learn all I could from seed to loaf, went on tours of wheat fields, received bags of wheat from farm family and friends, worked with a local mill using extremely high-protein wheat and testing it (the same mill that makes King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour for this region, and developed recipes for a sorghum mill..... I have a bevy of mills and teach classes on grains and milling. To quote Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead, "...what a long, strange trip it's been." Even though I made good bread before all this education and self-education on the subject, along with the large personal library of books on bread making I accumulated (which I've given to my brother, who is an excellent bread maker), they all helped me make better bread, and a larger variety of breads from around the world. It also helped my judging skills when I judged breads at County and State Fairs. -Grainlady