I'd suggest you substitute low-glycemic agave nectar for sugar in baked goods if you are a diabetic (it is an appropriate sugar substitute for most diabetics - but you should check with your health care professional or nutritionists). It has the benefit of acting/performing like "sugar" in baked goods (including browning, tenderizing baked goods, and feeding yeast in breads), unlike chemical sweeteners (like Splenda), and you get a better end product. It's much sweeter than sugar and you can use much less. For things that require 1-cup of sugar, I usually use half that amount of agave nectar (or no more than 3/4 of a cup agave nectar for 1-cup of sugar - for people with a really "sweet" tooth). I sweeten a quart of homemade ice cream with only 1/4 c. of (low-glycemic) agave nectar. I mill soft white wheat for flour for baked goods that require less gluten (such as brownies, quick breads, etc) or spelt (also less gluten). Less gluten and gluten development will keep the texture more tender. Fat AND sugar are also tenderizers. Eliminate either of those and you have to find other ingredients that will work as tenderizers (baking science 101). The bran in whole grain flours absorb a lot of moisture, as well as the gluten in flour, and white whole wheat flour is generally higher in gluten than all-purpose. Therefore you may need to adjust the flour amount down a bit, or increase the liquid to compensate for bran and gluten. -Grainlady

1. What was the temperature of the finished loaf? If you baked the loaf too long, that will have a drying effect on the "crumb" (the inner portion of a loaf of bread). The recipe indicates 190-degrees F. 2. How thick did you cut the slices for rolling? 3. It may help to wrap the loaf in plastic wrap or a plastic bag when it has cooled to 90-100-degrees F. in order to prevent it from drying out. The longer the loaf sits on the drying rack, the more moisture migrates from the crumb through the crust. 4. Other things that can affect the crumb.... -Overworking the dough -Insufficient first proof (use a dough rising bucket and only allow the dough to rise to just UNDER double). -Improper forming of the dough before placing in pan (tight or loose) -Using too much bench flour (use a Silpat to form your dough on, not a floured board or counter, and you won't need any bench flour - lightly oil your hands for handling the dough.) -Incorrect oven temperature 5. How did you measure your flour? You may have added too much flour depending on the measuring technique you used. You may want to contact King Arthur and ask them for some input. -Grainlady

ovenbird - "Are most commercially available red WW flours made from soft varieties?" No, they are milled from hard wheat (or a combination of hard and soft to get a certain protein count) unless it says something like "Whole Wheat PASTRY Flour", then that would be milled from soft wheat. I've had 16% protein wheat, which is almost too much gluten and will make a tough loaf of bread, and I have had to mix it with other wheat varieties, because that much protein would take forever and a day of kneading to develop that much gluten. I don't mix soft and hard wheat flours to make an "all-purpose" flour because I consider it a general purpose flour that really doesn't address all the gluten issues. To me, all-purpose flour is a "lets settle for something in the middle since most people don't know the difference" kind of flour. In all-purpose flour there is enough hard wheat for gluten for fairly good yeast breads, and enough soft so you can make a fairly good cake or quick bread, but it really doesn't address all the gluten factors and options like when you have a chance to mill your own grains, nor is all-purpose flour optimal for all uses. When judging cakes at the local County Fair, I can tell who used cake flour and who used all-purpose. There's a great deal of difference. I often know the protein level of the grains I get (from test weights at the elevator), or I can do water/flour tests as outlined in "CookWise" by Shirley O. Corriher, to figure what the gluten content is, but that's a rare occasion that I'd need to do that. I get grains from reputable sources. Spelt is also a good choice for a replacement for all-purpose flour, especially when making anything other than yeast breads with it, and I use a lot of spelt - nearly as much spelt as wheat. I can also tell from the feel of the flour, once it's milled, if it's hard or soft. If I were to forget which type of grain I had milled, I could usually tell by feeling it. Soft wheat makes a very fine, powdery flour, while hard wheat is a bit more coarse. There is usually more endosperm in soft wheat than there is in hard wheat, but not always. Hard winter wheat is usually small and wrinkled looking and has more bran and less endosperm. Hard Spring Wheat usually has more endosperm than Hard Winter Wheat, but also has less gluten because it has a shorter growing season. Commercial wheat is milled from a combination of hard and soft wheat to get the correct protein content because there is so much variance in grains. Even in the same field you'll have a combination of hard and soft. Anywhere there are puddles where water lays in the wheat fields, the wheat growing in that area will be soft from too much moisture. If there is a side of the field that has some shade from trees, that might also be lower protein than the rest of the field. So most commercial flours, whole wheat and processed white/unbleached, are usually a combination of hard and soft grains. I mill soft white wheat and oat groats (3:1 ratio) to make a very fine wholegrain "cake" flour. That's one that is a bit different.... -Grainlady

laceyvail- It sounds like you have done an excellent job maximizing the space available - no small feat (pun intended :-). We live in a 1,372 sq. ft. home, but the basement makes a big difference compared to your space challenges. My mills (and I have a number of them) would be a priority - even if I had to stash them behind the sofa or a chair along with buckets or #10 cans of grains/seeds/beans, but this is how we've lived for 43-years of marriage. There's a great little book by Cindi Van Bibber "No Wheat Grinder Wheat Recipes". The recipes are made with cooked wheat "base" and you blend it in a high-speed blender (see link below) to make things like cakes, cookies, breads/cereals, main dishes, meat dishes, desserts, salads and side dishes. But that's another appliance there may not be space for in a small abode. But if you have a Vitamix, it can be used to grind grain into flour, and used to make coconut milk or nut milk. I use the pulp left from making coconut milk to make coconut flour and the pulp from almond milk to make almond flour for making gluten-free baked goods. Even a small coffee/spice mill can be used to mill grain, especially the softer grains. When I do Home Food Storage Classes, we always have lively discussions about where to find storage space for enough food for a year. Having lived in a 2-bedroom, 10'X50' mobile home when we were first married and had our first child, I was able to accumulate 6-months worth of food (so we were never "starving" college students), and I learned how to maximize space. Our best friends were Mormons and they taught us the value of food storage - which paid dividends over the years. Creative solutions: -Shallow shelves up the backs and sides of closets, or the space next to the doors on the inside (wide enough for canned goods). -Raising all beds to accommodate storage underneath. -Making a side table for your bedroom or living room out of a steel or plastic trash can topping it with a round piece of plywood a round tablecloth. Add a round sheet of tempered glass or plexiglass on the top of the tablecloth to keep it clean. Store things inside you don't need frequently - such as off-season clothing, holiday decorations, etc. -Build narrow shelves (the depth of quart canning jars works well) beside a window to the wall corner, and cover them floor-to-ceiling with matching or contrasting window coverings, which makes the window look larger while hiding all your canned goods. -Under and behind sofas -Window seats with storage inside. -Bench seat at the end of the bed with storage inside. -Shelves, close to the ceiling, around the perimeter of a room. Cover it with a pretty valance if you don't want the items to be seen. -One clever mother disassembled her children's bed frames and stacked boxes of canned freeze-dried and dried food like powdered milk, grain, seeds, beans, etc. (6 #10 cans per box), and topped the boxes with a simple dust ruffle she made from a sheet, and put the mattress on top. This mother had an incredible food rotation system in order to make it work well. BTW - there is enough space in the footprint of a single bed for enough food for one person for 1-year. With people eating Reese's Puff Cereal made with 27 ingredients, Cheez Whiz - 27 ingredients, Nutri-Grain Strawberry Yogurt Bars - 56 ingredients, Morning Star Farms Chick'n Nuggets - 59 ingredients, KFC Chicken Pot Pie - more than 100 ingredients, and calling it "food", really aren't concerned with nutrition or food quality and what is now being called "death by fork". -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Cindi's Lifestyle Treasures - Books