Yum, Bread

I made some homemade bread yesterday. I've heard it mentioned that the shape of the dough effects the taste of the final product. Now I finally understand. I shaped my dough into some little hoagie rolls for easier sandwiches later. However, they took longer to cook like that and the crust got quite dark. It is still good bread, but it's not what I was hoping for. However, I still don't know enough about shaping to make bread always turn out good, so I will need more delicious experiments.
I did get to try out the cherry-strawberry jam I made recently on the bread. Is very good jam, quite sweet and full of flavor. I did turn out a little runny though, I think I may have over-cooked it when I added the pectin. I think I may have to start purchasing the pectin for less sugar jams. I didn't add the recommended amount of sugar, and that may have been the cause of the runniness. I just start adding sugar, and when it tastes sweet and delicious I stop. I usually end up adding a few cups less of sugar than is called for, because most recipes want you to sweeten the hell outta jam. What I made would have been about 5.25 cups of sugar . . . to 3 cups of fruit! I made it 3 cups of sugar and decided that was enough. Why does there have to be more sugar than fruit? Tasting it now, I think I should've done only 2.5 cups of sugar. Maybe I'm losing my knack for sweetness.