Gosh, OP here - I am excited to check out the Artisan Bread suggestions. Thanks!

I do the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day. OMG! The bread is so darn good. I was just flabergasted. I've been making bread for years, and never got the crust right. And it is perfect. The only drawback is I now eat way too much bread.

You do need to take the dough out of the fridge in the morning and let it warm/rise for 1/2 hour, I think, then bake, but this method would cut 1/2 hour off your process. And if you do little rolls rather than big loaf it would be quicker.

You might want to check out Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day-- book or website. I think they are basically a no-knead recipe that you can keep the dough in the fridge and they bake some whenever you want (but I think they have you let it rise for like an hour after it's been in the fridge so that might not work for you. You might be able to ask them what to do on their website.

Hmmm. With a bread machine I just use the delay function so it starts things up early morning. I'm not sure if that would work if you do it by hand.

I make my own Italian bread and the kids love it. I do not use a breadmaker - make, knead, one rest/rise (30mins), then shape it, another rest/rise (30mins) and then bake. I would love to have it freshly made in the morning - is there a particular step I could leave it at overnight and then bake in the morning? Does that work? Thanks for any advice.