Hi David, it sounds like you found one of our lovely tea loaf pans! In addition to being the perfect size for your favorite quick bread recipe, this pan can also produce a lovely loaf of yeast bread. Here are our recommendations for that type of use:  To adapt a standard recipe for regular yeasted or sandwich bread for this pan, you'll want to make sure it's a recipe that calls for between 4-5 cups of flour to ensure it fills the pan nicely. Take care to shape the loaf thinner and longer than you otherwise would. When baking, you may want to turn the temperature down by about 25°F (to 350°F)to account for the fact that's made of ceramic and check for doneness about 5-10 minutes earlier than the recipe calls for. We also love using this pan for baking savory dishes like lasagna! Without knowing your exact whole wheat bread recipe it's a bit hard to determine exactly why it's ripping. While it's certainly not uncommon to observe some "stretch marks" along the side of your loaf during baking as the loaf rises, if the surface of the loaf is ripping before the dough even goes in the oven, that sounds like the dough might be a bit over-fermented. Do you use very warm liquid when mixing your dough, or do you allow it to rise in a very warm environment? Ideally, you're aiming for a dough temperature in the 75-78°F range. When dough is much warmer than this, the result can be a dough that ferments too quickly. When dough over-ferments the gluten structure begins to break down and release water, making the dough much more fragile and liable to rip. If you think this might be contributing to your difficulties, this blog on Desired Dough Temperature may prove helpful. For more help troubleshooting, please don't hesitate to contact our Baker's Hotline. We're here M-F from 9am-9pm EST, and Saturday and Sunday from 9am-5pm EST, and the number to call is 855-371-BAKE (2253).

• Reply