Teresa, this bread is so good even after making major screw ups. Decided to try it in the bread machine on dough cycle with baking in the oven. Just as I was preparing to drain the fruit and add it, I found out a person I'd contacted about getting some fertile chicken eggs from to set under my broody hen had six for me. Out of show quality roosters and for free. And he said come and get them now. The bell rang for the addition of the drained fruit and nuts. I knew I hadn't drained the fruit enough, but I was in a hurry. Took off and halfway to my destination realized the dough cycle would be over a good while before I'd get back home. Sorry, but I really wanted those special eggs. The guy showed me all his show birds and got a lot of info from him. By the time I got back home I think the dough cycle had been done for two hours. I had a very wet dough that had risen in the pan then collapsed. Oh well, try to save it. Dumped it out on a liberally floured surface and kneaded in more flour, put it in the pans and let it rise. It did rise a little over the top of the pans.Tried my best and stuck it in the oven. It came out at 25 minutes completely done and beautiful except I didn't get the fruit and nuts distributed well. I've already eaten nearly half a loaf. Love it! Next time I think I'll add more cinnamon, follow the recipe on draining the fruit and not running out in the middle of it to get fertile eggs. Madonna

OK, so if I wanted to make it without using a bread machine (I don't have one). Tell me if this sounds right. Mix dry ingredients. Pour in yeast and water. Knead for 5 minutes in stand mixer. Put in greased bowl. Let it rise until doubled in size. Punch it down and shape it into a loaf pan. Let it rise until it's crowing over the top of the pan? I have some rye sitting in the freezer that I used for a sourdough starter so I guess I could grind a 1/2 cup of that for rye flour.

Substituting honey for molasses? Depends on how much is used in the bread. If it's a yeast or quick bread and the amount is less than 1/2 c., probably no problem using honey for molasses, but when using equal amounts, you'll find more sweetening from the same amount of honey as you would get from molasses. Be aware that foods brown quickly when using honey. To adjust for over-browning, reduction of temperature by 25° is sometimes advised (especially when the amount of honey is 1/2 cup or more), or you can cover your bread with a tent of foil for a period of time, to prevent over-browning or even burning before it's completely baked. Molasses (blackstrap) is 70% sucrose and is about one-half as sweet as sugar. While honey is fructose, glucose, and sucrose and can be 20% to 60% sweeter than white sugar, but with a composition very similar to table sugar. So if substituting large amounts of molasses with honey, you may need to reduce the amount of honey because it's much sweeter than molasses. You could also try using 1/2 molasses and 1/2 honey. Molasses does add some flvoring, as well as coloring. I'll add information about sorghum (aka sorghum syrup/sorghum molasses) for Jan "gourd friends". While molasses is made from sugar cane or sugar beets, sorghum comes from the sorghum plant and it's properties are very similar to those of black-strap molasses and are good substitutes one for another. Watch out for "blended" sorghum products. Many are cut with high-fructose corn syrup, which makes it sweeter than plain old sorghum. You can add to this syrupy mix, 100% pure cane syrup (like Steen's), treacle (another name for molasses), golden syrup, and maple syrup. All can usually be substitutes one for the other, but all have different flavors and will differ in sweetness. There are a number of substitions that can be made for molasses; for a cup of molasses the following may be used (with varying degrees of success): 1 cup honey, or ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar, or 1 cup dark corn syrup, 1 cup granulated sugar with 1/4 cup water, or 1 cup pure maple syrup. -Grainlady

Emily, I'm sorry you had trouble. I think that too much flour might have been the problem. I know the recipe calls for 6 cups of flour, but whenever I make any kind of bread, I always hold back at least 1 or more cups. I only add more flour if I think the mixture is too, too wet. I forgot that I kind-of ran into the same problem you're describing. Even at the five cup stage, the flour mixture seemed more like a kneading dough than a batter. So I remember (now) adding about 1/4 -1/3 cup additional water to make it more batter-like. When I got the batter into the pans, I was so worried about over-proofing the dough. I didn't want to pop the pans into a hot oven and then watch the bread deflate. So I think I could have let the dough rise in the pans longer. I'm sorry you had trouble. Forgive me for not mentioning anything. This old gray mare's brain ain't what it used to be. I need to make a note on my copy of the recipe too or else the next time I make it, who knows what I'll remember. I hope you'll try the bread again. It really did turn out well. My biggest problem right now is that my husband keeps wanting to have "toast" snacks.