Ok, this might get long. I have tried to bake my own bread regularly in the past but always ended up discouraged. I recently found this site and it gave me the courage to try again but I am again starting to get frustrated. As somewhat of a sandwichalohic I am trying to achieve that perfect "mushroom" sandwich loaf shape (looking at if from end on) that most store purchased bread has (even the bakery artisan bread). I am currently using the Rustic Bread recipe found on this site and while I like the results I still find it a little dense and it doesn't obtain the shape I am looking for.

My question is, should the mushroom cap shape at the top of the loaf be created by the second rise in the bread pans or is it caused by the oven spring during the baking? I think it should be caused by the bread overflowing the pan slightly during the second rise but it never seems to rise this high. If that is when it should obtain this shape then I think I might just increase the recipe so that the pan is filled with more dough.

Thanks for any information you can provide.