I thought like most bread I was supposed to slash the top so that the bread would expand properly when baked. As it turns out, I was not supposed to. As soon as I made the first cut, I realized I made an error. The bread immediately deflated to about half the height.
Upon further reading instructions, no where in the recipe does it state to slash it. It baked up fine with a decent color and the flavor was excellent. It was light, but not fluffy, which I attribute to the whole cutting thing. Ok, back to the bread again two days later.
Now if you remember from the paragraphs above this bread is supposed to light and fluffy. It's sweet, light and makes a great sandwich bread. What does that tell you? The bread being light and one loaf, being huge, is very heavy. This egg wash acted just like the slashing and just added to the weight.
The wash started collapsing the bread. What the hell?! Why can't I just freaking follow directions? Another two days later, I followed the directions to the tee (except for the extra water.) This one turned out absolutely perfect. The dough rested for an hour and came out like this.
After two hours of rising, you can see just how large this bread got. It's freaking huge. As previously stated I took this opportunity to follow directions. I didn't have any egg wash, and I didn't slash it. After baking, it turned out so good. It was freaking great. It baked up high and the crust turned out perfect. It was my most perfect bread.