I think I might get back into adding a small amount of fat to the bread I cook. My typical recipe is just bread flour, water, yeast and salt in the ratio 100:70:2:2 but, on Monday night, I substituted about 5% of the water with olive oil. The dough seemed a bit easier to work, the bread cooked very evenly and the texture and taste were fantastic. The even shape may also have been helped by the relatively deep slashes I put in the top before cooking, allowing plenty of gaps for expansion rather than relying on it doing its own thing in an aesthetically pleasing way!