What Is Autolyse? How Does It Boost My Dough?

When I started making sourdough, I encountered many fancy terms relating to sourdough-making. Autolyse (autolyze) is one of them. Although it is a popular method among home bakers and professionals, there are debates about whether it is necessary to perform autolyse in the bread-making process.

What is autolyse? What is so magical about it?

Autolyse comes from the biology term “autolysis”. It refers to the process of enzymatic breakdown of cellular material done by a cell’s own enzymes. In baking, autolyse is a process of mixing some part (sometimes all) of water and flour together and then resting the dough for a period of time. By leaving the dough alone for a while, water hydrates the flour and activates the enzymes naturally present in flour, which will start to break down the starches and the proteins(protease and amylase). Once glutenin and gliadin (the gluten-forming proteins) are hydrated, they bind together and undergo gluten-developing activities.

In short, autolyse shortens the mixing time by activating the enzymes and letting gluten established on its own before we start mixing the dough again.

The picture on the left is when the dough (water and flour only) is just mixed. You can see that the dough is a shaggy mass. After autolyse (rest for 30 minutes), the dough becomes more smooth and the gluten begins to form. (see middle and right photos)

How to perform an autolyse?

Simply mix the flour and water (I usually save 30ml for later (bassinage) when mixing starter/yeast and salt) and once there is no dry flour left, cover with a tea towel for the desired time. After autolyse, add the rest ingredients into the dough and continue the usual steps.

How long should I autolyse the dough?

The time frame is wide. From as little as 20 minutes up to 24 hours, either refrigerated or room temperature. Many recipes call for an hour autolyse. For me, a 30-minute autolyse is enough to start the gluten development.

Recipes with whole wheat flour benefit from longer autolyse since water would soften the bran and grains during this time. As for rye bread, autolyse is not necessary because there’s no gluten to develop in rye bread.

What about Fermentolyse? What is the difference?

Fermentolyse is similar to autolyse. Instead of mixing only water and flour, fermentolyse includes the starter in the initial mixing and resting. Once the starter is added to the dough, the fermentation begins. Therefore, care is needed when considering the length of time you are going to perform fermentolyse.

Why don’t we add salt during autolyse?

Firstly, salt helps tighten gluten. During autolyse, extensibility and elasticity are the goals. Also, salt slows down enzyme activity. The whole point of applying autolyse is to let the enzymes work the magic. Adding salt at this stage will have a negative impact.

Is autolyse necessary?

For sourdough alone, I don’t think autolyse is a necessary step. Surely we can’t deny that autolyse helps fully hydrate flour, shorten mixing time and develop gluten. However, bread made with sourdough starter undergo a rather long period of fermentation (compared to yeasted dough) during which the gluten also develops. Furthermore, there are some other techniques that assist in hydrating the flour(the main purpose of autolyse), for example – bassinage. For me, the benefit of applying autolyse method is that it will be much easier to handle the dough after resting especially without a mixer. Sometimes, you simply have no extra time for autolyse. So is it necessary? I’ll leave this one to you.

At the end

Making good bread isn’t just because you have done autolyse. Again, there are many factors that will affect the result. Maybe you don’t need to autolyse to make decent sourdough.