Oil or no oil?

I have for many years used oil (mainly rapeseed oil nowadays) in my bread.  Years ago it would be lard but now I use a much healthier option!  The bread will keep longer if you use oil of some description and it tends to be softer but is does interfere with the gluton structure.  If I am not using all the bread in one day, I tend to freeze it anyway.  There is plenty of information about the rights and wrongs of using oil.  At the end of the day it is down to personal choice.

In bread using fat provides flavour but more importantly lubricates the dough. This helps to retain the gases released during baking thus ensuring a well risen loaf which will have a soft crumb and will stay fresh longer.

Because bread dough contains a considerable amount of water the water content of the fat used should not matter. However to achieve optimum results with a reduced fat spread more of the product should be used and the water added should be adjusted accordingly. In practice when using a home bread maker it has been found that some reduced fat spreads are not readily incorporated into the bread dough. This is because the spreads are made with a tight emulsion to bind the high amounts of water with the reduced fat.
For the same reason reduced fat spreads on toast do not melt in the same way as butter.

Lubrication is the main function of oil, though oil serves many other functions in the baking industry as well. Lubrication is important to baked products because the oil improves dough handling, as well as eases dough expansion. In loaf breads, oil provides better slicing of the final product.

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