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Here are my modifications:
- Baked at 325 degrees, since the Splenda suggests a lower temp or baking time and my oven tends to run a little hot.
- Used equal measurement of Splenda for brown sugar and agave nectar for honey.

I also used a second loaf pan under the filled one as someone had suggested, since my breads usually end up darker on the bottom.

Overall, the bread seems to be very good so far. I’ll be curious to see how it is later tomorrow after it has some time to mellow. Thanks for the recipe!

Does anyone have such a recipe?

I don’t want people to think I’m dissing whole wheat! Not at all! It’s wonderful stuff. I’m trying to concoct a world-class bread that uses half whole wheat, and a whole big BUNCH of different seeds, grains, nuts, etc. It will NEED to be dense to hold all that good stuff! Many dense breads make fantastic toast. If anything gets a bad rap, it’s plain flours.

Whole wheat WILL rise, because it has some gluten in it. But it is always a denser loaf than one made with white flour, which has much more gluten, unless you add some gluten to it. I’m not enamored with refined flours, but they do have their points, and one of them is making many superb breads. I am not into dissing refined flour either.

But you can always add some gluten to a 100% whole wheat bread to get the result of half white and half WW. That’s what those “Better for Bread” flours have in them. But you could just as easily add your own gluten to your own white flour (cheaper) and also to a total WW dough, approximately 1 Tb per cup of WW flour. Experiment to find the optimal ratio for you. Keep in mind, too, that (aside from bananas or other added ingredients), all basic bread doughs get ALL of their protein content from gluten. That’s what gluten IS – a protein. I feel sorry for those who are intolerant of it. SO sad!

I have two problems of my own. One is an oven that I can’t adjust for precise temperatures – it’s old, and I’m poor, but hope one day to get around to getting a new thermostat for it. So sometimes, even with all the knowledge needed to make fantastic banana and other breads, I end up with something scorched on the bottom or that falls because part of the middle is somewhat uncooked. But that may not always be the cause.

The other problem I have is altitude. I’m in Mexico, at an altitude identical to Denver’s – one mile high. What I am NOT adept in at ALL is how to get my wonderful recipes for baked goods to turn out properly here. It seems every kind of bread or cake has its own “changes” that must be made to a specific recipe, not to any grouping of them. There don’t seem to be any standard principles to learn which we can then apply to the recipe we want; instead we have to use recipes that have proven out already at high altitude. That’s kind of extremely limiting, and it’s frustrating.

The hard part is figuring out how to adapt – which of these situations causes what problem? I’m still working on it.

I’ve often had some trouble getting a lovely browned crispy crust on breads like French. Sometimes they’ll bake up perfectly, but are still white! I’ve found that painting the dough, halfway through baking, with a mixture of 1 beaten egg and 1 tsp of salt solves that nicely.

This altitude is a glorious place for making bread doughs rise – I used to have problems with that back in Chicago. Here, they puff up like the marshmallow man. It’s the BAKING that gets sticky.

I’m still working on how to match the local bakeries with the “bolillo,” (bol-ee’-yo) Mexico’s answer to French Bread. And they are a noble answer indeed! Somewhat more substantial, but every bit as tender inside as French Bread, and a crust just as crispy and browned. For some reason, people think you can only make French Bread in those long rods. Not so. The bolillo is almost identical to French Bread, made into a shorter rod, but the dough is given a “twist,” to make it into two easily separated hard rolls, and each gets a good slash on top. Each rod is called a “tira.” YUM. I won’t say it’s better than French Bread, but it IS every bit as good. And hot from the oven….how do you spell “bliss”? I use them to make homemade pizza – saves the bother of making the dough, so I can enjoy my pizza more often! Sauce on oiled half roll, add toppings and gobs of cheese, and bake. You can do the same with any crusty hard roll. Bakes up much faster, too. Less drooling.

If you’re interested, it shouldn’t be hard to find bolillo recipes online. My problems are still the same for these, though.

One thing that galled me about baking breads is that almost ALL recipes yield two loaves. I don’t need even one full loaf. So I experimented.

I proofed a yeast envelope in water with a smidge of sugar and flour. When it foamed nicely, I added about 1/2 c of water and mixed it in. Then I mixed a small amount of flour with a tsp. of salt, wisked that in well, then continued adding flour till it made a decent dough. (I don’t ever add the salt to the yeast; I dilute it with flour, because salt retards rising.) The kneading went fast, too. It was about half a loaf’s worth, and I baked it in “mini-loaf” pyrex dishes, well buttered. I got about three of them. I smeared some soft butter on them after rising, then baked them, and they were lovely. And just enough. I once tried freezing white bread dough – it kept rising in the freezer and gooed it up. So now I chill it first, punching it down several times until it is thoroughly chilled. MUCH better.

Basic bread is nothing more than yeast and flour, with a bit of salt, and enough water to make a dough. You can add other stuff, too, if you like, like an egg, maybe some melted butter, substituting some milk for some of the water, etc. Egg gives a more substantial and “springy” crumb, milk and butter tenderize.

But the first bread ever made was just a liquid made from a little flour and some water, usually allowed to rise from organisms in the air, then adding enough flour to make a dough. Except for the addition of salt, and modern yeasts, basic breads, like French Bread, are still the same thing. Flour, water, yeast and salt.

Because I knew these things, I tried to make the classic Ethiopian bread called “Injera.” The “starter” I mixed for the air to seed and make the dough rise failed – abominably. It overflowed the jar, gooed up my countertop – and it stank! Only later did I learn it’s supposed to stink, and doesn’t stink at all in the final bread. But I lacked a vital ingredient, too, millet flour. You also need to bake it over a hot flame in a large circular, flat griddle with a lid. The pictures I’ve seen of it are like a sponge with large holes. Food is piled on top. You break off pieces of the Injera and use them to pick up the food. The sponge-like holes soak up a lot of gravy and other liquids. Sometimes the Injera in an Ethiopian restaurant covers the whole TABLE! But it looks so good…(sob). And, before anyone dines, the waiter comes around with soap, a towel, a jug of water, and a bowl, so they can wash their hands, because this is a meal eaten with the hands. I’m drooling to try it, but probably never will. Haven’t found millet flour here yet.

I hope some others who are novices may gain a bit from some of these experiences, especially the failures!