Making Wheat Bread From Scratch

If you are going to try this recipe, read through the post first. I started with 3/4 cup lukewarm water, 2 tsp yeast powder, and 1 tsp sugar. I mixed them all in a small dish and left them to rise. Reading on in the directions it told me to scald 2 cups of milk - I am trying to conserve milk so I used 1-1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup water. Then I had to look up scaling milk on the internet. To scald milk you bring the temperature up to 180 degrees. Next you wait for the milk to cool to lukewarm, wait, what? Shouldn't I have done the milk first so that 10 minutes after the yeast was ready the milk will have cooled some? Not that this is that big of a deal, just scald your milk first.
Next add 2tbs sugar, 2tbs fat (I used 1 tbs vegetable oil and 1 tbs turkey fat,) 1tsp salt into the milk. When the milk is lukewarm add the yeast that was already started. Then add 3 cups flour and whisk until well blended.
now, add flour until it is a soft dough - the book says that should be 3 more cups but it was in fact probably 4 or 5 cup. Then knead the dough on a floured board (and by board I mean countertop) until it is 'elastic and doesn't stick to an unfoured board'. It probably took about 120 kneads to get it to that state, I get bored and count these things. Next oil a bowl, put the dough in the bowl and then flip it over so the oiled side is up. Wait until the dough doubles in size, then punch it down. Wait for it to rise again and then cut it in half, rolling each half into ta ball. Cover these balls of dough and let them rest for 10 mins. (That is where I am in the process right now.) Shape into loaves and place into greased pans. Grease tops and cover until, once again, htey have doubled in bulk. Bake at 400 for 10 mins, then drop temp to 375 and continue to bake for 35-40 more minutes.
I do hope this bread turns out better than the last one did. That bread was dense and crumbly. This bread does seem to be rising well, about an hour to rise each time. Bread is not made with haste!