Teresa, this bread is so good even after making major screw ups. Decided to try it in the bread machine on dough cycle with baking in the oven. Just as I was preparing to drain the fruit and add it, I found out a person I'd contacted about getting some fertile chicken eggs from to set under my broody hen had six for me. Out of show quality roosters and for free. And he said come and get them now. The bell rang for the addition of the drained fruit and nuts. I knew I hadn't drained the fruit enough, but I was in a hurry. Took off and halfway to my destination realized the dough cycle would be over a good while before I'd get back home. Sorry, but I really wanted those special eggs. The guy showed me all his show birds and got a lot of info from him. By the time I got back home I think the dough cycle had been done for two hours. I had a very wet dough that had risen in the pan then collapsed. Oh well, try to save it. Dumped it out on a liberally floured surface and kneaded in more flour, put it in the pans and let it rise. It did rise a little over the top of the pans.Tried my best and stuck it in the oven. It came out at 25 minutes completely done and beautiful except I didn't get the fruit and nuts distributed well. I've already eaten nearly half a loaf. Love it! Next time I think I'll add more cinnamon, follow the recipe on draining the fruit and not running out in the middle of it to get fertile eggs. Madonna

My standard temperature is 375....but it makes no nevermind....just cook until done! Linda C

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

Substituting honey for molasses? Depends on how much is used in the bread. If it's a yeast or quick bread and the amount is less than 1/2 c., probably no problem using honey for molasses, but when using equal amounts, you'll find more sweetening from the same amount of honey as you would get from molasses. Be aware that foods brown quickly when using honey. To adjust for over-browning, reduction of temperature by 25° is sometimes advised (especially when the amount of honey is 1/2 cup or more), or you can cover your bread with a tent of foil for a period of time, to prevent over-browning or even burning before it's completely baked. Molasses (blackstrap) is 70% sucrose and is about one-half as sweet as sugar. While honey is fructose, glucose, and sucrose and can be 20% to 60% sweeter than white sugar, but with a composition very similar to table sugar. So if substituting large amounts of molasses with honey, you may need to reduce the amount of honey because it's much sweeter than molasses. You could also try using 1/2 molasses and 1/2 honey. Molasses does add some flvoring, as well as coloring. I'll add information about sorghum (aka sorghum syrup/sorghum molasses) for Jan "gourd friends". While molasses is made from sugar cane or sugar beets, sorghum comes from the sorghum plant and it's properties are very similar to those of black-strap molasses and are good substitutes one for another. Watch out for "blended" sorghum products. Many are cut with high-fructose corn syrup, which makes it sweeter than plain old sorghum. You can add to this syrupy mix, 100% pure cane syrup (like Steen's), treacle (another name for molasses), golden syrup, and maple syrup. All can usually be substitutes one for the other, but all have different flavors and will differ in sweetness. There are a number of substitions that can be made for molasses; for a cup of molasses the following may be used (with varying degrees of success): 1 cup honey, or ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar, or 1 cup dark corn syrup, 1 cup granulated sugar with 1/4 cup water, or 1 cup pure maple syrup. -Grainlady