After my preferment and first rise, when I go shape my boules of sourdough, I always end up with fairly dense dough which has large pockets/bubbles, rather than a uniformly pillowy and fluffy dough.
Any advice? I'm using a mix of whole wheat and white flour, a mature levain starter, and mixing by hand with stretches and folds.
I'd like a texture more pillowy, like this!
Important to know when the bulk ferment is sufficiently done. Not de-gassing the dough while doing stretch and folds will help. Each time the dough is de-gassed it'll make a tighter crumb. When shaping it is also important to not take out all the bubbles. Knock the big ones out and enough to handle the dough but don't de-gas fully. Also remember the higher the wholegrain the less fluffy the bread.