Baking – Why is this croissant dough not behaving as expected

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.

Cool Russian Black Bread!

Since you gave an update I figure you might still be tracking the question.

Does your recipe use Baking Soda? That would react to your vinegar to create the CO2 needed to rise the heavy bread, but since it is a very fast reaction you would need to go from adding vinegar to oven in a matter of minutes.

I'm guessing the recipe uses yeast instead and that the vinegar is merely for a strong sour taste. I would think that much vinegar would inhibit your yeast, but since you got a good springy baked bread you are already on the right track.

Some traditional recipes rely on a sourdough starter where the yeast does the rising and the bacillus bacteria is teamed up to convert the milk's lactose into that tangy sour lactic acid instead of vinegar. You could create your own "wild yeast" by mixing your flour (rye & wheat) with buttermilk or yogurt with an active bacteria culture and adding commercial yeast (or praying to capture and grow your own wild yeast which can take a lot of time and will probably be the same yeast species based on the Sourdough Project tests).