My husband and I loved this recipe! This is the first time I make it and decided to read all reviews to decide what adjustments I would make. It was a good idea, because my bread came out perfectly—rounded dome, thin crunchy browned crust and a wonderfully soft firm textured bread that was easy to slice (even very thin). I mixed it up in my much loved Kitchen Aid mixer and baked it at 350 for 45min. Here are the adjustments I made: Proofed 1 pkg. active yeast in ½ cup warm water mixed with 1 tbl sugar. Reduced buttermilk to 1 cup (actually, 1 tbl. Apple cider vinegar + milk to make 1 cup) let sit for at least 15 min. then added the baking soda. Mixed flours with salt and took out 1 cup Added buttermilk substitute and yeast mixture to dry ingredients in mixer and added the reserved 1 cup flour slowly. Mixture was very sticky, so I added ½ cup white flour and even though it was still a bit sticky, left it like that. Put dough in oiled bowl. Turned on oven for 1 min—turned off and put bowl covered loosely with plastic wrap in for 1 hr. Punched down and rolled into rectangle and rolled up tightly into log. Placed into greased bread pan and let rise in oven again for 1hr.; baked for 45min. Perfection!! Don’t be tempted to add more flour—will produce crumbly or dry bread.

I make bread for the entire neighborhood and have been looking for a great whole wheat bread. This is it!! I agree that it makes an enormous loaf so I'd reduce the buttermilk to 1 c. and the soda as well. For those who had failures, are you using bread flour? It's critical to use bread flour with a high protein content to get a good rise in any bread. Compare protein content between brands. In the Midwest, Dakota Maid bread flour is the best. Hope this helps.

Great texture, great taste. I use an Oster bread machine; therefore, I did use white bread flour and added 1/3 cup more whole wheat flour than called for in recipe, cause I thought it was a bit too moist at kneading. Used "White" and "Rapid" "Medium Crust" settings. For those having problems I might suggest that you add the baking soda directly to the buttermilk as you measure it as opposed to adding it with the dry ingredients.

Fantastic recipe. I have made it twice within a week. I am not the bread eater in the family, my wife is, and she doesn't want me to stop making it. It raises nicely, is very moist, and isn't heavy and compact like most whole wheat breads. I have done it both times completly in my bread maker which is one of the less expensive ones. I did follow a couple of the other reviewers advise. Use bread flour and not all purpose. Added almost another cup of whole wheat flour than the recipe calls for. I never have buttermilk so added 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar to regular milk and mixed the baking soda, oil, and honey with it. Put that in the bread maker first. I also mix the whole wheat flour, the bread flour, and salt in a bowl to combine well before dumping it in the bread maker on top of the liquid ingredients. Put a pat of butter in each corner of the bread pan. Set bread maker to basic/specialty setting with a crust color set for medium. You couldn't ask for a nicer loaf of bread. Will be making this often.

Oh man, I was disappointed with this recipe! After seeing the high ratings I was really excited to find a great whole wheat bread recipe, but I guess I should have READ the reviews, and taken the advice of adding more flour from the start! My dough was more like batter, which made it really hard to get out of the breadmaker and into my loaf pan! The flavor was okay, but "nothing to write home about" as my father would put it. I expected a really rich wheaty, honey flavor. I ended up throwing out the rest of the loaf after dinner.

I tried this twice: once exactly as the recipe specified, and once adding more flour. It cam eout extemely heavy both times- and this come from someone who is used to whole wheat breads. I was rather disappointed, and couldn't understand how this rated so high with so many reviewers. It doesn't come close to melting in your mouth.

EXCELLENT!!! I make bread about 3-4 times a week and like to try new recipes. I'm so glad I found this one!! Soooo moist and tasty!! I never have buttermilk on hand so all my bread machine recipes that call for buttermilk I just use 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar in the milk and it works super!! Thanks for this recipe my picky kids even loved it!! Yum! A definite keeper!!!

This is excellent bread and my family practically devoured this before it could cool. This recipe is a staple now... very impressive... not complicated... such a nice aroma in the house while baking!

Yum, soooooo good!! I hardly ever have buttermilk around (what?! and i call myself a baker...), so I used milk and mixed in two tbsp of yogurt for the tang. It worked wonderfully, and the bread is lovely. (It's good with sunflower seeds mixed in, too.)

Tt's easy to make this bread in my bread machine, but I often take it out for the second rising and bake it in a loaf pan. My kids love it.