Back to the original topic, which was wheat bread ...

I don't remember where I read this, I think it was a bread machine cookbook, but it suggested adding gluten to recipes that included 100% whole wheat flour.

Whole wheat flour has less gluten in it than regular white flour. Gluten is what makes bread stretchy so it will rise without breaking. You can usually find gluten wherever you find bread machine mixes and flours. It comes in a box, and is a powder, finer than flour. You just add one or two tablespoons to your bread recipe (I think there's exact proportions on the box). It also helps to add more yeast. I've even doubled the amount of yeast to get the bread to rise properly.

I make 100% whole wheat bread all the time, using a special high altitude whole wheat bread flour I found in the grocery store (I live above Denver, at 6000 ft). I never have any problem with the bread rising, in fact, sometimes it rises too high! I used to have trouble with regular wheat flour, though, until I found gluten. That was back when I lived at sea level. I could never put more than one cup of whole wheat flour to 2 or 2-1/2 cups of white flour, and still the bread didn't rise well.

One other information point, bread flour has more gluten in it than regular white flour. If you can't find whole wheat bread flour and you can't find gluten and you want more than one cup of whole wheat flour in your bread, try going half and half or 2/3-1/3 with a bread flour (Pillsbury makes one called Better for Bread).

Now, on the temperature of the water ... my machine really doesn't seem to care, it's the freshness of the yeast that matters. Also, salt kills yeast, so take care not to add them one right after the other. When I used to make bread from scratch, I used a kitchen thermometer that I bought at the grocery store for a couple of dollars. I goes from around 80 or so up to 400 (for making candy and frying). When soaking yeast in water, the water should be around 80 to 85 degrees. When mixing the yeast with the flour (as we do in a bread machine), the water should be hotter, around 115 to 130. However, I think that the mixing and kneading action of the machines heats it up a little, so the temperature of the water isn't that critical (as long as it isn't ice cold). I have one cookbook that says lukewarm (but doesn't give a number), and another that just says tap water. However, here in Denver, tap water can be pretty darn cold when there's snow on the ground. so I do the finger test.

Hope all this helps!