Not.
The careless shaggy dough shown in the previous post down there ↓ that prefermented and developed into a slightly aged sponge is stretched on a floured work surface where it picks up additional flour and proofs a second time covered by an overturned storage tub. This redistribution by stretching and the influx of fresh food from the work surface is a big thing for nearly exhausted yeast cells. They take advantage of the situation. They have to, it's part of yeast-nature. The plastic storage tub is a convenient way to fashion a proofing box as they are the same dimensions as half sheet baking trays, and they are sold both deep and shallow.
Once again I forgot the salt. I am a dunce.
The dough was so sad-looking when it went into the oven. Loose and wet. Flabby. Not taut and ready to pounce as you might expect. Nothing happened when the dough was slashed as if there was no life left in it. Placed into an exceedingly hot oven it appears to have no chance at all, and indeed, I have baked such loaves that finished as they started. But now I have a new understanding and a secret weapon.
Dough can expand in a hot oven if it is wet enough for long enough. The wet dough must remain pliable while it heats up fast. If the skin bakes before the internal bubbles heat and expand then they must break through for steam and air to escape. But if the dough is wet and stays wet then the skin can expand to accommodate expanding internal bubbles. This is accomplished by steady pulses of steam for the first ten minutes of baking, and you can stand there and watch through the oven window the sad wrinkled stretch of exhausted-looking dough slowly expand then suddenly expand like a balloon and lift itself off the hot surface to escape the torture of contact. But there is no escape. Even the impressively resilient yeast within have given up the struggle to thrive. There is only one way out and that is baked.
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