We keep our house cool, too, and my challa rises fine on the counter. You can even do the second rise in the refrigerator overnight. I usually make a few at a time, so after the first rise, I shape the loaves and wrap (in foil) and freeze the extras. When I want to use them, I take them out and unwrap, put on a greased sheet or in a greased loaf pan, cover with the greased foil from the freezer, and let it sit 6 hours before baking. Comes out exactly the same as if I bake it the same day. As for storage, I, too, had read that the refrigerator makes bread go stale fast. We keep sliced bread in the freezer, because we don't use it very fast. I toast it straight from the freezer or pack lunch sandwiches with frozen bread (keeps the filling fresh, too); to eat right away, I nuke it for a few seconds, but only as much as I'm sure we will eat. For the homemade or other special bread, we keep it in plastic bags in a breadbox in the pantry. I don't know why it's so, but a breadbox really, really does keep bread fresh so much longer.

Happyday, I agree that you are overproofing your bread, probably. If you let it rise too high it will collapse on itself and you'll get that sunken lump. Ask me how I know. (grin) Ann T, I do bread dough overnight and it's good, I've done it up to two days in the fridge and it's good, but I keep it more than that I it seems to develop a flavor that I find similar to mild sourdough. Elery loves it, so he's always hoping that I don't have time to bake that dough, LOL. jasdip, you won't find a consistent yeast amount in bread recipes. Some have more and some have less, depending on the flavor the originator of the recipe was shooting for and liked. As has been mentioned, bread is simple and forgiving, you can use more yeast or less, you can use whole wheat or white or off brand flour, oil or butter or none, milk, water, coffee, whatever and it will usually come out just fine. I just made a loaf for Elery that took a cup of liquid, I used 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of Sriracha sauce, along with a bit of dry mustard and some black pepper. White whole wheat in place of all purpose. He loved it, I'm not even tempted to try it! I had seen a similar recipe on the internet, but I didn't feel like looking it up, so I made it from what passes for my memory and it was still just fine and an absolutely beautiful color. Annie

Terri, I have split recipes for most Italian artisan breads and for French bread, forming ovals (rounds usually get out of shape or lumpy more easily for me)and baking on a sheet liberally sprinkled with cornmeal. I don't see why you can't split the dough and do smaller loaves, as long as the dough is a fairly firm one. If you are using a recipe that calls for a 9" cake pan, try making a "fence" of several folds of aluminum foil to contain the dough. Your friends are going to love you--everyone gives cookies and other sweets this time of year. Good homemade bread is the best treat of all!

Hey Lucy, a couple things. The proof setting is 125 degress...WAY too hot to be proofing anything. That said what I do when the house is really cold is turn on the proof setting and let it run for a few minutes while watching the temp. and turn it off when it reaches 90. The problem also with the proof is that a fan is blowing in the oven which would dry out things that are rising unless you cover them well. The reason that Alton has you using the hot water is just to get a quick rise of the rolls. So you can either set any old bowl of hot tap water in there with the rolls...nice moist warmth to rise them in, or you can use the proof but cut it off before it reaches 125 and let your rolls rise or a combo of both and set the warm water in there....I wouldn't use boiling just your usual hot water from the tap and turn on the proof and then cut it off and you will have warm and humid. Oh also do cover the rolls as they rise or you will get a dry skin on the top of the dough. You can brush then lightly with with oil or spray with PAM to keep them from drying out...this is the same as when you place a ball of dough into an oiled bowl and then turn it over to coat the top. Hope this wasn't too long. c PS please post pics !