Freeze them - and all the websites say double wrapped. Storing them in the refrigerator for almost a week is not a good idea.

I'm with Linelle (uber hot things on top of the cooktop, or SS surround). Still, we haven't babied our Cambria Quartzite at all (including the occasional cutting by certain people directly on top of it - no names, ahem) and it's held up very well. Love it as a prep surface. As a baker, have you considered/are you able to consider deeper countertops (and uppers)? Just pull out the lower cabinets by 6" (for more cost effective solution). If uppers are deeper by the same amount, it works perfectly. 30" countertops: (in hindsight, I would have ordered deeper lower cabinets). I can roll out a pie dough and not move the canisters. Here's my old baking (prep, cleanup, baking) area; as you can see, the deeper countertops (regardless of surface) are so helpful. The deeper uppers above this area allow me to store my serving bowls vertically: Best of luck!

There are different ways to check for different kinds of bread. I do a no knead whole grain bread when I want to limit my clean up water. It is wet, starts with a soaker and a preferment, and after mixing it rises for at least twelve hours. It's a long process without kneading. The volume only increases by about a third. There are a lot of seeds and other things mixed in which also help impede the rise, though the biggest culprit is the bran. I get my best rise by putting the mixed dough right into a terracotta banneton I can bake it in. It's not pretty but it is delicious. One checks by volume. On the other end of the spectrum, my very yeasty, sticky but not wet, double rise challah dough is guaranteed to double in volume in a short time. Usually about 80 minutes. The challah could do the windowpane test, but the whole grain won't stretch that much without breaking. I use the spring back test for whether cakes are fully baked, but not breads. Both of the above would fail. The challah would deflate. The whole grain would look insouciant and say, "Huh?" Linda is right, btw, about the gluten developing over time. Working the glop and stretching and folding is done to develop the gluten, according to the bakers who started this trend, and the sciency ones as well, but if you leave it to ferment long enough, it'll happen without. That's the point of "no knead bread". But it also takes days to make. Re the whole wheat love of your starter, that's some magic flour! Generally, they like white because it's a sugar high. Don't be scared of a happy starter! Next time you decide to change the feed, give it some of each and put it in a bigger bowl so if it grows that fast, it's contained.

Just an update. My neighbor’s husband was playing golf in the yard yesterday, so I handed him my big, heavy bag. It had the some of the items suggested like the dough hook, flour wand and so on. Also some artisan bread flour to try out. Golf balls for the husband of the brand recommended in another thread. She came over a couple of hours later with a still warm Dakota bread and turtles for my husband. Asked if I was hacking into her emails because I had also included the “proof basket” or what it is called recommended here. Said she had it in her online shopping cart before but didn’t get it yet. She said she normally waits until Christmas to open ours since it’s her favorite, but because it was kind of heavy and her husband was like “what did she do now?”, they did open it. While she was here, she also asked my daughter about what her favorite rolls are. Met me at the hedge today to deliver a dozen warm ones. She said she is also going to try baking a chocolate almond torte to be ready when our family comes over for Christmas. (Said it’s a Rich one to serve twelve, so she wants it to be fresh). Gosh, I love my neighbor. Thank you so much for helping me making her happy. As for my family, we better take some long walks or something.