The Biggest Mistakes You're Making With Sourdough - Tasting Table

According to True Sourdough, autolyze is a method in bread-baking where the flour and water are mixed and then left to sit before the other ingredients are added. This period, which can last anywhere from 10 minutes to over five hours, allows the flour to become fully hydrated, which in turn helps develop gluten. Although implementing an autolyze is not required in baking sourdough, there are a variety of benefits to both workability of the dough and a tasty loaf.

An autolyze will make the dough more workable because the gluten development makes the dough stronger. After an autolyze, you will find the dough stretchier, smoother, and not as easily torn. This is the same reason why sourdoughs made with an autolyze have a better oven spring, a more open structure, and a softer interior, says True Sourdough.

Additionally, baking with an autolyze will make for less kneading time later on since an autolyze essentially preps the dough's gluten development. In turn, this makes your final product tastier. Plus, the fermentation time is slower with an autolyze, so the flavor can develop more than it would with a fast fermentation. An autolyze in baking sourdough is not a requirement, but the many pros to having one certainly make the added time worth it.