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Blanche--it's ok to proof the yeast with a small bit of sugar. The problem only comes in high sugar recipes, as with coffee cakes, sweet rolls, etc.
I guess the next question to ask is how long are you kneading your bread and at what speed?
Also, do you use a rest period when you are mixing? Whole grain flours, once you add liquid take a while to absorb it, so the danger is that you may add too much flour or too little liquid. You might want to give your dough about 15 minutes, after its mixed, to sit covered (I put a towel over the mixer), and then knead it.
A couple of thoughts:
1. I have a used bread machine which I bought at an estate sale for $20. I only use it for the initial mixing and the kneading when I'm doing a recipe of up to 4 1/2 cups flour (5 is pushing it). I don't even allow it to rise in the bread machine, which I think is too small and gets too warm. For my larger recipes, I use a 7-quart Cuisinart mixer. Cuisinart got out of the mixer business a year later. I can do three loaves of bread in it.
2. You mention proofing your bread at 80F. I think that is too warm. I've not used a proofing box, but when it is exceptionally cool, I move the dough to a location that will be around 70F (in my case, close to the wood stove in the front room). Some people use the top of the refrigerator. For an initial rise, I cover the greased bowl with one of those food-safe "shower caps" that KAF sells or with some flat German plastic lids. I've also used saran. For the second rise, I like to put the shaped dough in its pan into a plastic snapped box. That keeps the bread from drying out on top.
3. Be careful not to add too much flour to your dough. That was a problem that I always had when I kneaded by hand. Too much flour will make the bread more dense.
My rice cookers (both Black and Decker) are very basic. I find that I need to be on the spot when they are finishing, or the "keep warm" feature ends up drying out the rice at the bottom, which may be how the small cooker came to be scratched. If I were to replace it, I would try to find one where that would not be an issue. I know that rice cookers come with many settings, and those tend to be the expensive ones. I thought that I was on the safe side with my minimalist rice cooker; I never expected the bowl to be what broke.
I have thought of finding a new small rice cooker that would also let me cook steel-cut oats in the morning. I currently make the steel-cut oats by boiling a cup of water, adding 1/4 cup of steel-cut oats, then covering it and letting it sit off the heat overnight. The next morning, I add 1/4 cup milk and a couple of tsps. of chopped dates, then I stand and cook it down to the right consistency. I remove from heat and let stand while I make coffee. It would be nice, she said wistfully, if an appliance cooked the steel-cut oats while the coffee was being made. However, I would need it not to stick.
If I can find my 5-cup rice cooker, then I'll take that one on our trip. That gives me more time to look at what is out there in the rice cooker world.
Mike: Did your doctor say anything about increasing your intake of potassium-rich foods? That might be another way to tackle the issue if it is allowed. That's how I discovered that I really like butternut squash! Roasted butternut squash, combined with homemade chicken/turkey stock and a bit of heavy cream or full-fat yogurt, or whatever dairy or non-dairy you like, makes a tasty soup. I use the Penzey's Now Curry (no salt, but does include garlic), but I noted that their Sweet Curry also has no salt AND no garlic.
