I wouldn't reduce the yeast or you may find you don't have enough yeast activity to get good ovenspring. According to Shirley O. Corriher in her book, "CookWise", when retarding (chilling) dough overnight or longer, it influences the bread in three ways: -Enhances flavor. The cold temperature forces the yeast into dormancy so it is no longer gobbling up all the available sugars. The bacteria then can feed and produce some of their flavorful acids, which add subtle complex flavors and enhance keeping quality. Acids produced at cold temperatures 30-40-degrees F) are wonderfully flavorful, and even at cool temperatures are good. -Reduces ovenspring and loaf volume. Chilling for a period as long as overnight reduces ovenspring (oven rise) and reduces loaf volume. Alcohol that was made by the yeast from the beginning changes to a gas in the hot oven and is a contributor to ovenspring. During a lengthy cold period, alcohol simply evaporates from the surface of the dough and some goes to vinegar. ...Chilling reduces the carbon dioxide in the bubbles, which contributes to a slight change in texture and possibly slightly reduced ovenspring and loaf volume. -Opens texture slightly. Chilling dough retards the action of yeast and influences texture, though much more subtly than breadmaking method. Another point about refrigerator doughs... Enriched recipes designed for the refrigerator (such as Betty Crocker - Potato Refrigerator Dough) include mashed potatoes (or instant mashed potato flakes). WHY? Lloyd M. Maxon, author of "The Baking Book" and a microbiologist who specializes in yeast biochemistry explains... Mashed potatoes - or any pureed vegetable - is vital for refrigerator doughs because it preserves moisture in the dry climate of a fridge. A regular yeast dough would dry and become unworkable more rapidly. These refrigerator dough recipes are great when you want to make the dough ahead of time and the next day use a portion to make hot dog or hamburger buns, cinnamon rolls another day, and dinner rolls yet another. -Grainlady

Ok...here goes again :) You can't ever ever substitute RAPID RISE for anything else...never. The recipes that call for it have taken its specific properties in to consideration and the final product will be a result of this. ADY or Active Dry Yeast and Instant Yeast are interchangeable. The only difference is the amount you use. 20% less instant and you MUST activate ADY with warm water , you do not need to activate instant. I will cut/paste this info and attach a link from The Fresh Loaf. Hope this finally clears up the confusion. The reason annie has not had a problem with a too fast rise is , as she says, she has not use Rapid Rise. "Active Dry Yeast This is probably what comes to mind when you think of yeast. It's dry and granular, about the consistency of cornmeal. To use it, you dissolve a few teaspoons in warm water (110-degrees or cooler) and then add it to the rest of the ingredients. This yeast will behave 'typically' and will give your dough two rises. Instant Active Dry Yeast This is also known as "bread machine yeast." This yeast is milled into finer particles and it does not need to be dissolved in water like active dry yeast does so you can add it along with the dry ingredients. This yeast also gives you two separate rises and it can be used interchangeably with active dry yeast. Measure out the same amount of yeast and skip the water-activation step. Rapid-Rise Yeast This yeast has also been milled into smaller particles so that it doesn't need to be dissolved into water. In addition, enzymes and other additives are included to make the dough rise faster. With this yeast, you can skip the first rise of the dough and shape the loaves right after kneading. What you save in time, you lose in flavor and structure. Your final loaf will be fairly bland and commercial tasting, with a tight, uniform crumb. Since it behaves so differently, this yeast cannot be substituted for either active dry or instant active dry yeasts. Fresh Compressed Cake Yeast This is the kind of yeast that commercial bakers tend to use. It's a solid block with a clay-like consistency, is more dependable, and dissolves easily. However, it's 2-week shelf life makes it less ideal for home bakers to use (the granular yeasts above have a shelf-life of about a year in the fridge). If you want to try fresh yeast, use twice the amount of fresh yeast as dry yeast called for in the recipe." Here is a link that might be useful: The Fresh Loaf yeast FAQ

Interesting reading. For ME that is! I learned something from it. ------------------------------------- Early in our cooking-baking life, we learned firsthand the enormous difference between making chocolate chip cookies with butter that is essentially melted, with room-temperature butter, and with butter at refrigerator temperature. The temperature of the ingredients has a lot to do with how the cookies turn out. If you put a warm, melty dough into the oven, your cookies will spread before they begin to set up. Too often they'll run into one another, becoming a single crisp, crunchy mess on your cookie sheet. The cooler the dough when it goes into the oven, the less it will spread. Another reason that cookie dough is refrigerated is that it gives the gluten time to relax. You don't want to mix a cookie dough containing wheat flour any more than absolutely necessary, as the more you mix it, the more gluten develops, and the more rubbery your cookies will be. Letting the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour does wonders for relaxing the gluten and letting you produce cookies that are soft or crunchy (depending on your preference), but not tough and rubbery. Finally, letting the dough rest in the refrigerator also gives the flour more time to absorb the liquid more fully. This allows the dough to become drier and firmer, which produces a better consistency in the finished cookie and also better taste. Even Ruth Wakefield, creator of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie, said she chilled the dough overnight. A writer for The New York Times recently conducted an experiment with a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, where he baked a portion after chilling the dough for 12 hours, for 24 hours, and for 36 hours. The 12-hour cookies were fine; at 24 hours "things started getting interesting," with more even browning and better flavor; at 36 hours, the cookies browned still more evenly, and had "an even richer, more sophisticated taste, with stronger toffee hints and a definite brown sugar presence." In an informal taste test among his colleagues, the 36-hour cookies won conclusively. We have been speaking mostly of chocolate chip cookies � the dough of which we generally can't muster the fortitude to store in the refrigerator for even a few hours � but the rules can be applied to nearly any cookie.

Muffins look delish. I use a clean recycled plastic grocery bags for covering dough. Either tent it over the bowl or plop the entire bowl inside the bag. Or you could turn a much larger empty bowl upside down over the bowl of rising dough.