Do you want 100% whole wheat or will a mix of white and wheat do? I have a honey wheat recipe, it's Elery's favorite, makes great sandwiches and the honey in it makes it a favorite of the kids too. I've made it with all whole wheat and with a mix of whole wheat and King Arthur's white whole wheat, both were fine but we like it best about half white (I use King Arthur all purpose) and half wheat, which is 3 cups of each. Last week I replaced half a cup of the water with a half cup of orange juice and it was really nice. I think the next time I'll some orange zest, the flavor was a nice complement. If I made it with all whole wheat and wanted a lighter sandwich type bread, I think I'd add some vital wheat gluten to help it a bit. HONEY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD INGREDIENTS: � 3-1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour � 2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour � 2 pkg. active dry yeast � 2 tsp. salt � 1 cup milk � 1 cup water � 1/2 cup honey � 3 Tbsp. oil � 1 egg PREPARATION: In large bowl, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, the yeast, and salt and mix well. In saucepan, heat milk, water, honey, and oil until a thermometer reads 120-130 degrees F (warm) Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine. Beat this batter for 3 minutes. Then, gradually stir in rest of whole wheat flour and enough remaining all-purpose four to form a firm dough. Sprinkle work surface with flour and knead dough, adding more flour if necessary, for 5-8 minutes until smooth and satiny. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning the dough in the bowl to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, until double in bulk. Punch down dough and divide into 2 pieces. On lightly floured surface, roll or press each piece of dough to a 14x7" rectangle. Starting with shorter side, roll up tightly, pressing dough into roll with each turn. Pinch edges and ends to seal and place dough, seam-side down, into greased 9x5" bread pans, making sure short ends of bread are snugly fitted against the sides of the pans. Cover and let rise in warm place until the dough fills the corners of the pans and is double in bulk, 30-40 minutes. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, until bread is golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. I like to brush the bread with butter when it's still hot from the oven for a softer crust. Annie

That does seem odd -but I completely agree with yaya, just keep an eye on it for the last 30 minutes. What brand is it? You might try googling it. And btw, if your first few loaves are not to-die-for-yummy, don't give up. Mine weren't either, but you can get consistently good loaves once you get the knack of it. Some of the things I did that made a difference: -Get a thermometer, and measure the water temp. -Take the yeast out of the fridge, measure what you need, put that amount into a mug, and then set that mug into a bowl filled with very warm water. I found it helps to do this, rather than using cold yeast straight from the fridge. -Babysit the machine the first five minutes. Some days the dough will be too dry, sometimes too wet, despite your best efforts. Be ready to add a teaspoon of warm water when it is too dry, or a tsp. of flour when it is too wet. Have fun with your new machine!

Hot Cross Buns and Greek Easter Bread come to mind, and Greek Easter Bread is a basic enriched Danish dough with anise flavoring or aniseed, and formed in a braid in a circle. #1. Find out how much the flour capacity is for your bread machine before using a non-bread machine recipe. For instance, my Zojirushi bread machines (V-20 and X-20) have a 5-cup capacity if I'm going to bake in it. The old Zojirushi S-15 had a 4-cup capacity. If I'm only use it to mix/knead the dough, I can use a larger amount of flour for a recipe - BUT - I take the dough out of the bread machine as soon as kneading is complete and proof it in a dough-rising bucket - NOT the bread machine. 2. As chas045 pointed out, check your dough. Check the condition of the dough during the first 5 minutes of kneading and adjust it for hydration at that time by adding more flour or adding more liquid - whatever is necessary - if the dough doesn't form a soft tacky ball. The amount of flour necessary for any bread recipe is just a good (or bad) guess. If the recipe called for high-gluten bread flour, and you used all-purpose flour, it would take more all-purpose flour (or less liquid) because of the lower gluten (protein) content in all-purpose flour. Gluten soaks hydration like a sponge, so you have to adjust to those differences if you switch from one flour type to another. 3. Do a search on-line for a bread machine recipe for "Easter bread" and try to locate one that is similar to what you are wanting to make and one that will work in your bread machine. Have a blessed Easter! -Grainlady

FLsandytoes- Proofing the yeast was an interesting "new" twist to making fluffy bread in a bread machine, and one I've never come across. I think there are probably much better methods, but one just never knows..... I had a friend who used fresh yeast in his bread machine and it had to be proofed, so there are some applications for this process in a bread machine. I have a recipe for white sandwich bread that uses 1 cup of white cake mix, as another interesting example for making "fluffy" white bread, due to the soft wheat flour in the cake mix. FYI -- Two tablespoons of non-fat powdered milk, reconstituted, equals 1/2 c. of milk - which is a reasonable amount of milk in a bread recipe without causing crumb and crust problems. Much more than that and you will need to scald the milk first to avoid the textural problems caused by too much milk (from the milk whey protein). Heating the milk denatures the problematic protein. Try the recipe with 1/2 c. of milk and the remaining liquid water and see if you get different results. You will STILL need to adjust the dough for correct hydration (soft sticky ball) while it's starting to knead. --To improve 100% whole wheat bread, add an acidic ingredient, such as ascorbic acid. Some yeast products add ascorbic acid to the yeast. Yeast works better and longer in a slightly acidic atmosphere. There is a substance in wheat germ called Glutathione which breaks down the gluten - and is why we have trouble getting high-rising, fluffy, loaves of whole wheat bread without lightening the loaf by adding bleached/unbleached flour. By adding ascorbic acid it will help counteract the negative effects of Glutathione and will help repair broken gluten bonds (which is the cause of short, compact, squatty loaves). Add 1/8 t. of ascorbic acid (Fruit Fresh will work - it's a mix of ascorbic and citric acid) per 3-cups of flour. You may also find some recipes for 100% whole wheat bread that add lemon juice or vinegar for the same acidic effect, but it takes a lot more lemon juice or vinegar than it does ascorbic acid. You would have to use 6-times as much lemon juice to be as effective as ascorbic acid. -- Another way to lighten 100% whole wheat bread is to do a sponge with a portion of the flour for at least 1-1/2 hours, and as long as overnight. When I incorporated this method I got high-rising loaves of 100% whole wheat bread that were equal to any light-wheat and white breads I made. Soaking whole wheat flour helps lighten the loaf by softening the bran (bran cuts the gluten) and it gives the gluten time to absorb moisture, which creates strong gluten bonds without manipulation (kneading). I always use a sponge method for 100% whole wheat bread made in the bread machine. -- When adding 10-Grain Cereal Mixture, add it towards the end of kneading at the add-in beep. This goes for anything that may have a sharp edge, like nuts, dried fruit, etc. Adding dried fruit (raisins) early in the process and the kneading will pulverize them. If you add this coarse grind of grains/seeds/beans early in the dough making process it will cut the gluten strands as the dough kneads and you'll end up with a short squatty loaf because of the cut gluten. I prefer adding a dry mixture at the add-in beep because I like the "toothy" nuggets from the cereal mixture. If you don't want that much texture, you may want to soak the mixture first, but still wait to add it at the add-in beep towards the end of kneading. -- Another way to improve 100% whole wheat bread is to wait to add the salt and fat after the dough is kneading and the gluten is well developed. Once you add salt, the gluten tightens and kneading is more difficult - with a bread machine or by hand. Adding the fat early in the mixing/kneading "shortens" the gluten strands and development for a finer textured loaf. You can make the exact same recipe, and by adding the fat early or adding the fat late, it will alter the crumb and size of the loaf. Adding fat early for a close crumb (bread used for sandwiches), add it late for a more open crumb (bread used for toasting). These options are neither right or wrong - but are options to help control the crumb of the bread. --The same bread making rules and techniques that apply to making bread without the bread machine also apply to making bread IN a bread machine - such as when to add salt and fat. Bread machines are designed to make bread quick and easy and doesn't always take into considerations these rules and techniques. -- Check the dough for proper hydration while it's kneading, not after it's rising, while you still have time for the ingredients to be mixed into the dough. -- I only use the bread machine for mixing and kneading dough. As soon as it has completed the kneading I stop the bread machine and remove the dough and place it in a dough-rising bucket. I don't want a machine with a timed rise to determine when the dough has "doubled", which is actually determined by the strength of the yeast, moisture and ambient temperature, not a clock. If I have 1-quart of dough patted into the bottom of the dough-rising bucket, I know it has doubled when it gets to the 2-quart line -- whether it takes 25-minutes or 1-hour. In fact, it's better to only allow dough to rise to just UNDER double because our flour no longer has the extensibility it did as when it was bromated, and whole wheat flour was never bromated. The reasons not to use milk for proofing: 1. Water is more reliable than milk. 2. When proofing yeast in milk use 4-times the amount of milk as yeast. Yeast also tends to clump in milk and not proof as well. If you have to stir the milk/yeast mixture, you will end up killing some of the yeast. 3. Yeast works best with sucrose (table sugar) over lactose (milk sugar). 4. Yeast granules can become coated with milk fat (much like fat coats flour when making pastry) which can restrict water from entering and dissolving the yeast. -Grainlady