whole wheat bread

Every day I am watching, reading or listening to people go on and on about whole grains and bread. Whether it is a real wheat bread made from whole wheat or one from enriched wheat flour the store brands just dont work for me. The bread is always dry & lacking of flavor that I enjoy. I had tried numerous recipes that failed to deliver until i converted a white bread recipe and the family loved it.
Here it is:

4 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour (wheat flour)
3 tblspns honey or malt barley syrup
1 stick butter salted (smart balance sticks work well too)
1 16.9 oz bottled water
1/2 cup scalded milk
2 tspns instant yeast
1 cup ice cubes
1-2 tblspns crisco
2 4"x8" (standard bread pans)
plastic wrap

- add to mixer bowl fitted with dough hook the milk and water
- next add 3 cups of whole wheat flour
- next add honey and 1 tspn of yeast
- mix for five minutes (scrape down and loosen all flour)
- in seperate bowl mix 1 cup whole wheat flour w/2 cups bread flour & 1tspn yeast
then pour over wet mix (do not mix in) and cover with plastic wrap letting sit for four hours and the wet mix will bubble through during the four hours.

-add the butter tblspns at a time to mixer bowl as it is stiring slowly until all butter and dry flour mix is incorporated. dough should be slightly sticky but not enough to stick to your hands if it is add more flour.
- Then mix at medium speed for 7 - 10 minutes or when dough pulls away but before it wraps up on to dough hook

- remove dough add a little oil put dough in turn it around three times flip over turn three times again cover w/plastic wrap and let set 1 hour.

- remove dough again pull out and place on floured counter fold edge to edge Right to left and up to down two times (2 businesss letter turns as it is commonly referred to)

- then add dough back to mixer bowl turning to make sure it has oil on top and bottom again. cover w/plastic wrap let sit one hour!

- after the hour preheat oven to 350 add cookie sheet to lowest level of oven

- grease bread pans with crisco entire sides and bottom

- remove dough from mixer bowl cut in half

- roll/massage 1 piece of dough into rectangle use fingers to dimple then fold each side into the center (with a significant over lap) slowly rolling the dough up from where the folds overlap. It almost could be termed rolling a burrito (make sure you make the roll tight to fit in pan and pinch if needed to hold shape)

- repeat with second piece of dough

- cover both with plastic wrap (i let them rise on top of the warming oven) until they rise to the desired height you want 1 inch or so over pan) 1-2 hours

- remove plastic add ice to cookie sheet place bread in oven bake for 50 minutes and rotating after 25. make sure a wood poker goes through without sticking before you remove. (you can paint the loaves with butter if you want more flavor)

_ upon removal from oven immediately remove bread from pans to drying rack and let cool throughout.