During the final proof, the dough will expand and the seams from shaping will soften/spread. Maybe some bubbles will be bigger. Though unpopped visible bubbles are more likely with a bread or all purpose flour dough.
Most of the recipes in the Breadtopia blog from the past couple of years will have a photo gallery. In that, there are photos of the beginning and end of the final proof. If you haven’t already looked through some of these galleries, they might help.
This is a wonderful, wonderful recipe! I have been making a basic no-knead sourdough for about five years, but haven’t experimented at all beyond that. To follow this recipe I spent a little time watching videos to understand some of the techniques and terminology, buy my first loaf was a delicious success! I’ve since made this twice more times so far, and it is easily the best bread I’ve made. For just a little extra effort over the no-knead recipe I get great flavor and extra nutrition. Thank you! I have also been experimenting with the 5-minute bread method, so twice I have doubled the recipe and left the extra in the fridge. I only had one fail, when I left it in too long - it was obvious, though, and I made crackers with the dough instead of attempting bread, and they were actually very tasty - very sour. This week I divided my dough into 4 small loaves (we are a 2 person household) and baked one per day. I am on loaf 3 now - I’m about to put it into the oven, and it looks great, not over-proofed. We’ll see if the day 4 dough is still good!
That bread is gorgeous! I’m glad you enjoyed the blog post and picked up additional strategies. No knead is a good option to have but being familiar with all the gluten development tactics is fun and rewarding too.
I just wanted to share my day four loaf - I made the last of the dough into 3 skinny baguettes, and it was sour and delicious! Perfect for gourmet hot dogs, lol!
Nice work! Making your dough stretch over time like that is really neat.
I am really impressed with the level of details documentation, thank you!
I use a mixture of home milled (combination of hard red, rye, and buckwheat) and less than a third of unbleached organic AP flour. I have the following questions, after I read and re-read your instructions:
I’m glad you enjoyed the blog post. I’ll try to answer your questions.
Really happy to see that you’ve (apparently) turned all this great work into a book. Your post here was first-rate and worthy of preservation. Congratulations!
Thank you 
Nice job! I love the pinwheel score.
Great recipe! White whole wheat berries aren’t easy to get here in the UK, so I used wholegrain spelt instead for the 150g. Beautifully open crumb, and a really moist, deliciously soft texture with a lovely flavour.
I bet spelt was a delicious choice. So glad you had a great bake
I just started making this recipe, using 100% Turkey Red flour. I’m just wondering if it’s odd that after 30 minutes I went to do the stretch & fold and there were some bubbles on the top of the dough! I have never had bubbles that fast. I’m wondering if that means I will have to cut the bulk fermentation very short!
The more whole grain in your dough the faster it will ferment compared to a dough with less whole grain, so yes you may have to shorten bulk.
Benny
Thanks, Benny. I get what you’re saying, I’ve just never seen a flour quite this active! Maybe I will do the third stretch and fold a bit early and get this into the fridge after 2 hours instead of 2.5.
Yes that is probably a good idea, your levain must have been raring to go.
I made this, with 100% Turkey Red flour and the amount of starter and water specified in the recipe. I did rubaud mixing for 10 minutes with a 5-minute break in the middle. just over 2 hours for the initial bulk fermentation because it was moving so fast (with 3 stretch and folds), followed by 12 hours in the fridge and 1.25 hours for the final room temp proofing. I got very little rise in the 38-degree fridge. The dough shaped ok but practically soupy going into the dutch oven and I had to score it with scissors because it was so wet. I baked it until it was 207 degrees. The end result was a very disappointing texture - dense and gummy in the middle. I’m not sure if this was over or under-proofed…or just over-hydrated. Any ideas? I have never had this issue before. The edges of the bread are great, when toasted. And I like the flavor so much that I will try another 100% Turkey Red loaf with an overnight saltolyse and small inoculation.
That crumb looks under-proofed and also under-baked. It’s a good data point. Try the exact same recipe and procedure again and bulk proof it longer and then bake it longer too.
