To Slash or Not to Slash, No-Knead Bread

To Slash or not to Slash

I like to slash the top of the dough although it's not in Jim Lahey's / New York Times recipe. Otherwise, the loaf can come out like these.  It is difficult to slash the doughs made with extra liquid--although even a slight scratch shows up in the final loaf.

This no-knead bread loaf was made using the Cook's Illustrated Recipe with my extra no-touch knead at 12 hours. This is the worst case of the uglies that I've seen.
 

For comparison, here's a loaf that was slashed:

 

Another unslashed loaf:
 

Quinoa No-Knead Bread.  The peak in the back is due to the dough being thin and sticking to the parchment paper. I forgot to slash the top due to the difficult of handling the dough even in parchment paper.