A whole wheat loaf without sugar or other food for the yeast will be a
dense loaf and, unless sliced thin will indeed be more calories,
simply because it has far less gas or air bubble holes in it.

Search for and download other bread machine manuals, such as the Black
and Decker manuals that are available on the web and look at their
recipes as well - there are lots of Whole Wheat recipes available for
both US and Canadian wheats [and they are NOT the same].

It sounds like you are trying to make a whole wheat bread without any
white flour, any sugar, any salt, or any fat. The general minimum you
need for a whole wheat bread likely will be:

A liquid. Milk, Water, Buttermilk, or water with dry milk or dry
buttermilk all work.

Some amount of Whole Wheat BREAD flour, or a mixture of Whole Wheat
non-bread flour and a white BREAD flour, or a mixture of Whole Wheat
non-bread flour AND VWG or 80% Gluten Wheat [the latter seems to be
available in Canada only].

Some form of sweetener that the yeast can feast on. Honey, Molasses,
Corn Syrup, Sugar or other similar foods

Some salt. Generally the salt will be between .5 and .1 times the
amount of sugar

Some fat. It can be Safflower Oil, Olive Oil, Butter, Margarine, but
some fat is needed.

Yeast - the amount depends on the type of yeast.

Eggs are not needed, but some egg white from a carton of egg white
will not hurt and can replace some of the other liquid used. It adds
protein and some structure to the bread and does NOT add the stuff in
the yolk that you likely view as unhealthy.

You need to develop a feel for what the dough should feel like.

It does sound as if you do NOT have enough liquid in the recipe. Whole
Wheat flour usually needs MORE liquid than white flour because it
absorbs more liquid per gram of flour.

Whole Wheat never rises as much as white flour, so you will end up
with a more dense loaf.

If you wait until it cools fully you should be able to slice it in
..1666 or .2 inch thick slices and therefore cut down on the calories
per slice, but you will always find it is more dense than what you
buy, so it WILL be heavier if cut to the same thickness as the stuff
you buy. Heavier slices are more calories for obvious reasons.

Follow a recipe in the book exactly or download one where everything
is measured only by WEIGHT and make that one or two times, without
playing the games of eliminating ingredients to make it healthier. Get
to know what the machine will sound like if you are following THEIR
instructions and you will then know if it sounds like it is struggling
with the dough you are now playing with. Only when you know what the
machine should sound like and what a loaf should look like should you
being experimenting with your own cut down version of a recipe.

FWIW

RsH
----------------
On 10 Feb 2005 17:49:45 -0800, wrote:

>I recently bought a Kenmore KTR2300 automatic bread maker and I have a
>few concerns. My reason for buying it was to hopefully make bread
>consistantly, that was cheaper than 'store bought' bread but more
>importantly, healthier. I don't want hydrogenated oils, salt, sugar,
>eggs or any other ingredients that are not necessary fur making bread,
>which I can then use for sandwiches. I want to use 100% whole wheat
>flower.
>
>The recipe book that cam with the unit has a whole wheat recipe which I
>have tried. But, I have calculated that a single slice of sandwich size
>bread, using this recipe, will be about double the calories of the
>normal 90-100 calories per slice 'store bought' bread that I normally
>buy. This doesn't seem right to me.
>
>Can you advise me of a simple recipe for making 100 percent whole wheat
>bread with as little extra ingredients as possible?
>
>Also, the manual that came with the Kenmore bread maker did not mention
>anything about what to expect when the machine is kneading the dough.
>My machine seems to labor very hard at it, as though the dough is way
>to stiff. Is this normal, or do I have too little liquid in the mix?
>
>Thanks in advance for any help you may have for this somewhat confused,
>and not terribly "handy in the kitchen" bachelor ;-)


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