Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I'd been looking for a good recipe for whole wheat bread, and I think I found it. Whole wheat bread recipes tended to taste too strongly of whole wheat and be more dense than I like, and thanks to http://www.cooksillustrated.com/, I think I've figured out why and, also found out what bread dough should feel like. More in the Instructions for the recipe on that! I've made a few changes to their recipe and am really pleased with the result.
NOTE: It is pretty sweet. I reduced the 3 Tbsps. of syrup to only 2.

2 1⁄4 cups bread flour, plus extra for work surface

1 1⁄3 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsps salt

2 Tbsps (1oz/28gr) butter

1 cup milk

1⁄3 cup water

2 Tbsps maple syrup (or honey, or agave syrup)

2 1⁄4 tsps dry active yeast 

1. Adjust oven rack to low position and heat oven to 200°F. Once oven temperature reaches 200°F, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off oven heat.
2. Mix flours and salt in a large bowl and create a well in the middle. In a pot, melt butter, add milk, water, and maple syrup and heat to 110°F. Remove from heat immediately and allow to cool - the pot will continue to heat the liquid, and you want it to be no greater than 110F or it will kill the yeast. Pour the 110°F liquid into the well, then add yeast to the liquid. With a wooden spoon, start mixing the flour and the liquid/yeast together. When it thickens, use hands to combine everything. Now this is important: the dough will be quite sticky to start - just rub your hands together to get the dough off and keep kneading in the bowl. Once in coalesces into a ball, pour out any remaining flour from the bowl onto your work surface, and keep kneading the dough to incorporate it all. And this is my real discovery about making bread - do not add more flour than this or the bread will be tough. Just knead the bread until it stops feeling sticky, and starts to feel smooth, slightly warm and damp, like someone whose palms are sweaty. If the ball feels dry and floury, then you've used too much flour. Another test is to lightly pinch the dough, and if it bounces back, it's done. Kneading should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Place dough in a very lightly oiled bowl, rubbing dough around bowl to lightly coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap OR a (very) damp cloth; place in the warm oven until the dough doubles in size, 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Form the dough into a loaf by gently pressing the dough into a rectangle, one inch thick and no wider than the length of the loaf pan. Next, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam side up and pinch it closed. Place the dough in a greased 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan and press gently so dough touches all four sides of pan.
5. Cover with plastic wrap OR (very) damp cloth; set aside in a warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size, 40 minutes. Heat the oven to 350°F, placing an empty loaf pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
6. Remove the plastic wrap/cloth from the loaf pan. Place the pan in the oven, also pouring heated water into the empty loaf pan; close the oven door. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim into the center of the loaf reads 195°F, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan, transfer to a wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.