Homemade Bread

A friend is letting me borrow her breadmaker, to see if I like it.  So far I've baked two loaves, though I'm baking another loaf now.  Last weekend I made two loaves, tweaking the recipe each time.

Here is the recipe I'm working with:  http://www.heatherdriveblog.com/2008/07/best-breadmaker-sandwich-bread.html

It claims to be super soft.  But I'm probably not using the same flour she's using, as I've not been able to find "bread flour" anywhere (Target, Vons, Henry's, Trader Joes).

The first loaf I made is pictured below.  I follwed her recipe precisely, except the 2 1/2 cups of bread flour I swapped for whole wheat flour.   So a total of four cups of whole wheat flour.  I thought this loaf was too dense, and too salty.

Here is my first loaf.  Turned out nice, but was too dense and too salty.  

So in the next loaf I baked, that same day, I went 2 cups of whole wheat flour, and 2 cups of just regular white flour.  I also kept the salt the same, and added some honey.  As you can see below, the thing erupted.  It tasted better, but was a disaster.

Tasted a little bit better on the 2nd loaf, with a tweak to the recipe

So now, a week later, I'm baking another loaf.  1 cup of regular white flour, 3 cups of whole wheat, honey, a bit more sugar, and a bit less salt.

Will keep you posted.