I realized last night, that amid all of my experiments with bread, I completely forgot about the autolyse technique, which I learned about several years ago.
I’d like to try it with spelt (I’ve been working on spelt bread recently) but I’ve run out of spelt flour. Regardless, this is something I must work with.
You might be asking yourself what I am talking about right now.
Autolyse is when you mix flour and water first, and allow that to rest 20-30 minutes. This affects the gluten strands. The reported result is a dough that mixes in less time and is stronger. It’s supposedly also more flavorful and less acidic. Autolyse is not considered a sponge or a pre-ferment because the yeast has not been included yet. Also, do not add salt during autolyse because it’ll affect moisture and gluten formation.
If nothing else this holiday weekend, I’m making a loaf of bread.
(ok, ok, I’m probably making cookies this weekend too but that’s totally unrelated.)
