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Should I autolyse my dough?
Autolysing is combining the flour and water for a period of time before adding the sourdough starter and salt. It has a few benefits: enzymes are released that make the sugars more available for when you add the starter, it softens the bran in a whole grain dough, and it gets the gluten development going.
If your house is warm, your starter is lively, and you’re planning a relatively fast process, then autolysing the dough can be helpful to get a head start on sugar availability and gluten development. Also, if you’re making a dough with a lot of whole grain flour, autolysing the dough will help soften the bran before the fermentation process even starts. Try a short <2 hours autolyse if your home is warm, or use the refrigerator for a longer autolyse. Make sure you add the starter and salt gently, possibly with rests in between if the dough starts to tear.
If you plan long fermentation of your dough with some refrigeration during the first, second, or both rises, then most if not all the benefits of an autolyse are are achieved through the slower ferment. An autolyse won’t harm the dough, but it’s unlikely to add any benefit. Here are examples of two long process whole grain doughs Whole Grain Sourdough Rustic Country Loaf and Traditional Whole Grain Miche, and here’s a comparison bake experimenting with refrigerated final proofing.
Certain flours don’t benefit from an autolyse, and are possibly even harmed by it because their enzymatic activity is already high. Sprouted wheat and einkorn fall into that category in my experience. The dough begins to break down before the fermentation is complete. Rye has so little gluten that while you might get some benefit of bran softening from an autolyse, it’s not probably not worth the extra step for a mostly rye dough.
Here are some blog posts of experimental side-by-side comparison bakes of short vs. long autolysis and no autolyse vs. 3-hour autolyse for you to explore.
Should I autolyse my dough?