White whole-wheat (also called whole wheat pastry flour) will yield a softer bread and still have the fiber. The vital wheat gluten is a must. Here is David's (Lakeguy) recipe which I have saved but have yet to make (still no oven, but soon!). It looks great. Struan Bread Makes 1 large loaf or 2 small loaves Soaker 3 tablespoons polenta 3 tablespoons rolled oats 2 tablespoons wheat bran 1/4 cup water Dough 3 cups unbleached bread flour 3 tablespoons brown sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon instant yeast 3 tablespoons cooked brown rice 1 1/2 tablespoons honey 1/2 cup buttermilk 3/4 cup water topping 1 tablespoon poppy seeds Mix together the ingredients for the soaker. Cover and allow to soak for at least half an hour or as long as overnight. In a larger bowl, combine the dry ingredients, then stir in wet ingredients and soaker. Add more flour or water until the dough can be formed into a ball that is tacky but not sticky. Place the ball of dough on a clean work surface and knead it for 10 to 12 minutes, then return it to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to ferment until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, degas it gently, and split it for two loaves or shape it as is for one. Place the loaves in greased bread pans, spritz or sprinkle water on top, and sprinkle a handful of poppy seeds on top. Cover the pans loosely with plastic and allow the loaves to rise until doubled in size again, approximately 90 minutes. Bake these loaves at 350 for 40 to 60 minutes, until the internal temperature is around 190 degrees. When ready the loaves will be quite brown on top and will make a hollow thud when tapped on the bottom. Nothing like homemade bread...I love it! David

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

As a longtime home flour miller, FRESH IS BEST when it comes to maintaining the nutrients in flour, as you already know. Studies have shown that vitamin loss begins as quickly as 3 hours after milling. I'd choose to make bread and freeze it, but you can also freeze the flour ASAP after milling. Freezing only slows down the nutrients and germ oil from degrading in the flour, it doesn't stop it, so it's also only a short-term solution. Bread (baked) will have a storage life of about 3-months in the freezer. Using honey in your breads destined for freezer storage will help them keep better than using sugar in the recipe. It helps maintain the moisture in the crumb. It's also important to wrap breads tightly. I suggest one or two layers of plastic wrap, then foil. The tight wrapping helps keep the moisture from migrating from the crumb of the bread, through the crust and forming ice crystals. I freeze nearly all my breads and I never have a problem with ice crystals. I also slice the bread AFTER it's thawed. Unfortunately, frozen dough has an even shorter freezer life than either the baked bread or freezing the flour. Frozen dough keeps 4-8 weeks. And as Annie pointed out, you can have a yeast failure when you freeze dough. A "good" freezer dough recipe will use more yeast than a normal recipe because freezing will kill some of them. Commercial frozen dough has a much higher ratio of yeast in it. I hope you get your mill soon because I'm sure you will love it. I saved my $1 bills (seemingly forever) so I could purchase my first mill, and now I have a bevy of them!!! -Grainlady

ohiomom - Not having made the recipe you posted, but comparing it to the Pillsbury recipe, I'd certainly try it at a lower temperature. You might lower it by 25°F and check the results, then lower it another 25°F the next time, etc., until you get the results you want. I probably wouldn't lower it below 350°F. You'd also want to test the loaf for doneness by using an instant read thermometer - between 190-200°F. The loaves in the Pillsbury book look like traditional, high-rising, domed top loaves. Your loaf looks like it has a nice crumb, but it also looks like it didn't rise properly or deflated from over-proofing, perhaps due to the adjustment of the salt. In your recipe, I think I'd use at least 2 to 2-1/2 t. of salt for that amount of flour/yeast. I believe the minimum "average" amount of salt in yeast breads is 1/3 t. per 1 cup of flour. When you divide that much sodium per serving, it's actually very little sodium per 1-ounce slice of bread. Salt adds a lot of flavor, but if you're like me, I've eliminated a lot of dietary sodium, so less is best for my tastebuds. "Old" recipes do tend call for more salt than I typically use, and I adjust them according to my tastebuds. The rule of thumb is, when you adjust the salt in a yeast bread recipe, adjust the yeast by an equal amount. For instance, if you reduce the salt by 50%, then adjust the yeast by that much as well. But as with all "rules" concerning breadmaking, there is always a way to break the rules and breadmaking is all about contridictions. There are many ways and techniques to make bread, and bread is quite individual. How many of us have made a loaf of bread and accidently left the salt out of it entirely, and still got a loaf of bread.... Salt has these functions in yeast breads, so if you reduce or increase salt, you may affect these things from the science perspective. 1. tightens gluten 2. enhances flavor 3. slows yeast activity 4. controls bacterial growth For those of you who lack a pilot light to warm your oven for proofing dough, check the temperature of your oven with a thermometer (with the door closed, light on, and 20 minutes to warm up). I've noted in my oven it stays a perfect 80-85°F - in the farthest corner away from the light. It's too warm close to the light or in the middle of the oven. But to contradict bread "rules" again, dough rises just fine at much colder temperatures, it just takes longer than when using an optimum temperature and optimum humidity. Cold rises actually contribute a lot of flavor to bread. -Grainlady