Can I leave flour to autolyse for long period of time?
So, as many people in lockdown I wanted to bake a sourdough bread. I received a starter from a friend that I keep in my fridge. I took the starter out of the fridge, fed it, and mixed the flour and water for it to autolyse. However, my starter barely raised. I assume due to it being in the fridge for quite a while. So, after about six hours, I took a half of it away and fed it again.
My question is if it is OK to leave the mix to autolyse for a long time, maybe even over night, until the starter is properly ready?
Also if you have any other tips I am missing they would be greatly appreciated.
Best Answer
Yes letting the sourdough sit at room temperature over night should work. This is in fact the way I handle the refreshing of my Lievito Madre usually and from my experience sourdoughs tend to be robust enough that some hours more or less should not matter much. When starting a culture it´s even common to let it sit at room temperature for up to two days between the feedings. But I would not recommend to let it sit for such a long time before storing it in the fridge again because even there the process does not stop entirely and also consumes some food. To get more life into your dough also ensure it is sitting warm enough. For me room temperature at ~20°C works well usually but if you are experiencing trouble to get it started again aiming higher at around 28°C might also help as the bacterias are getting more active at warmer temperatures. (Autolyse does not exactly mean refreshing/feeding of sourdough. It a process where just flour and water is mixed before other ingredients (yeast, salt, ...) are added to reduce kneading and improve taste and texture.)
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Quick Answer about "Can I leave flour to autolyse for long period of time?"
Autolysis is a process in bread making which involves mixing flour and water together for a period of time, before adding other ingredients. This hydrates the flour, which encourages enzymes to begin gluten development. Dough can be left to autolyse from 10 minutes to 5 hours or more.How long can I autolyse flour?
What is an autolyse? An autolyse is the gentle mixing of the flour and water in a bread recipe, followed by a 20 to 60 minute rest period. After the rest, the remaining ingredients are added and kneading begins. This simple pause allows for some rather magical changes to occur in your bread dough.Can you autolyse dough for too long?
If you autolyse for too long, it can result in a sticky, weak dough that potentially degrades through extended fermentation. Finally, when a formula has significant spelt flour, which is known to typically be very extensible, I'll skip the autolyse.Can I autolyse for 24 hours?
Temperature: If you leave the dough at a room temperature between 20-22\xb0C (68\xb0F \u2013 71\xb0F), the autolyse time can extend up to 8 hours (in case of particularly strong flours). On the contrary, you can opt for storage in the fridge at +4\xb0C (39\xb0F) for up to 24 hours.Can you autolyse overnight in fridge?
Once you've built enough strength into your dough (a good indicator is dough that holds it shape and reaches windowpane stage), place into a container, cover and store in refrigerator overnight.AUTOLYSE / HOW TO/ HOW LONG/ AND IS IT WORTH IT?
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