Baking – How to follow a recipe if the oven doesn’t go as high as the recipe states

There are some previous questions with good answers like this one, or this that go into much more detail than I'm about to.

You said your bread didn't rise with the first rise, if you don't have a first rise you can't go onto the next step. If your yeast was old, or the temperature was cold in your kitchen or you used cold water in the dough, or the yeast came in contact with salt then its action could have been slowed down drastically and it would take much longer to get a rise. I've had a first rise take up to 4 hours in the past because of these factors. The times given in recipes are just guidelines, you have to be result-driven. Active dry yeast also takes longer than quick yeast to activate. When using active dry instead of quick yeast you would get better results by mixing it with the water before mixing in. I'd recommend using quick yeast as it's milled into smaller grains and you can mix it directly into the flour.

Of course your yeast may have simply been dead, or killed by salt or heat. Get some good fresh yeast and store it in the fridge to keep it fresh long-term.

Also, using all whole wheat flour isn't going to produce anything like a baguette. Whole wheat flour is very heavy compared to white flour and will take longer to rise. A half and half mix would work better. I'd recommend sticking to the recipe first, then gradually modifying it over time until you get your desired result.

You have only 62% hydration for a dough with lots of protein, and then you put it for whole 14 minutes in the mixer.

You must be aware that gluten is a strong elastic mesh before it is baked. When you pull at it, it pulls back. Similarly, when the steam and other gases in the bread try to expand in the hot oven, the gluten keeps them from expanding too much. It is like pumping up a bicycle tire - the harder the tire rubber, the less it expands, even if you pump lots of air into it.

You must be aware that 1) French bread recipes at 60% hydration are meant for AP flour at ca. 10% gluten, not bread flour at 13% gluten (the flour variety for bread flour is not common in Europe), and 2) 15 minutes of kneading is typical for hand kneading, not for machine kneading. The combination of low hydration, high gluten flour and long machine kneading will give you a very strong gluten which will be quite resistant to expansion during rising.

If you want to have softer, larger loaves, you should work with more hydration. I frequently use 70% even with AP flour, it is still quite easy to work with with a good technique. You can also consider less kneading and/or using a softer flour.

If you want a stiffer, denser bread, you cannot get more rise. It is normal for these recipes to stay less risen. In this case, keep everything as it is, and eat the bread the way it is now - I see nothing especially wrong with it.