Spring Herbs and Preserved Lemon Focaccia

The two foccacias shown here use a variety of ingredients that celebrate the arrival of spring: herbs from the garden, sprouted flour and lemon. That's where the similarity ends. Same dough, baked less than 18 hours apart, presented vastly different results. Has that happened to you before?

- Baked the first loaf on Tuesday around 6 pm. after leaving the dough to rest at room temperature for 3 hours. Result: open crumb.

- A second piece of the same dough went into the refrigerator on Tuesday (while the first loaf was resting and heading to the oven). Took it out on Wednesday at 9 am. Shaped and baked it at 12 noon. Result: dense crumb. Why?

Yes, dough develops at different rates, the shaping may differ, and oven conditions change. But the results from two seemingly similar bakes (which was my intention) ended up looking so remarkably different, in terms of the crumb structure, more than I can adequately explain.

What could be done differently to ensure consistency of results? Should dry yeast be added if I want to make the dough ahead, allow it rest in the refrigerator and bake later?

A complete write up can be found here: http://flourishen.blogspot.com/2016/05/spring-herbs-and-preserved-lemon.html

Welcome any comments and suggestions.