The Fresh Loaf

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How long can you soak All Purpose flour (autolyse)?

Bread Head's picture
Bread Head

How long can you soak All Purpose flour (autolyse)?

I bake two types of bread Tartine and Ken Forkish Overnight White.

How long can I push my autolyse?  I have done 4 hours before and have not noticed anything abnormal.

I use Whole Foods 365 All Purpose Organic flour with about 20% hand ground whole wheat.

(When I say "Autolyse" I mean just Flour and Water)

Thanks!

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

Why would you wish to extend it? You asked, "How long...?" Leave it long enough, and it will begin to ferment, perhaps enough to become a starter, Short of that, I'm not sure that there is much to be gained by a longer autolysis, especially for AP flour, which hydrates fairly rapidly. Long, cool, slow fermentations will develop flavor in your dough, as you know with your overnight loaves. That's where I'd want to take advantage of delay time.

Cathy

Bread Head's picture
Bread Head

I just though that the longer the flour is hydrated that the better the bread would be....

Thanks for the tip..............I didn't know that AP flour hydrates rapidly!

What about the fresh ground whole wheat that I put in.........would that benefit from a long autolyse? 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

or overnight.  But 18 gets problematic with less browning in the final loaf crust.  That can be corrected with an addition of active malt or sugar when completing the recipe.

Bread Head's picture
Bread Head

Thanks, that is helpful to know!!

When you soak your AP for 12 hours do you keep it at a certain temperature?  Hot, Cold, or Warm?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I tend to stick it into the fridge overnight (unless I plan to use it sooner 4 to 8 hrs)    If cooler, the counter or the porch (15°C.)  

greyoldchief's picture
greyoldchief

Northwest Sourdough has done a study on autolysing. Here is a link.

http://www.northwestsourdough.com/experiments-with-autolyse-autolysis/

Bread Head's picture
Bread Head

Thank you!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

but this post plays fast and loose with the facts that science has brought to the bread party.  First Professor Calvel did not discover autolyse.  He found the process of letting flour and water rest before mixing in the salt and preferment in a 1290 AD French cook book.  It had been around for a very long time before Calvel gave it the name autolyse.  Being a chemist, the process reminded him of the term autolysis in chemistry and biology where a living cell is broken down by enzymes and killed.  This isn't that and why he gave it a different name - if it was the same he would have called it autolysis.

There is nothing alive in dead flour and dead water that is digesting anything.  Yes enzymes are dead amino acids which also happen to be proteins. They aren't alive so they don't reproduce, ferment, metabolize or digest anything.  They act as catalysts to speed up chemical reactions when they are activated by water at the proper temperature.  Enzymes don't reproduce since they aren't alive but their catalytic effect of speeding up chemical reactions is enhanced by an increase in temperature - to a point.

What protease does is break the protein bond that hold glutenin and gliadin together when they join to form gluten in the presence of water.  Protease does not break down glutenin and gliadin, which are also amino acids and proteins, but it does speed up the process that weakens and eventually breaks the bond that holds them together in the form of gluten by acting as a catalyst. 

Temperature plays a part in that for every 18 F increase in temperature, the effects of protease as a catalyst.  Eventually the temperature gets too high and the enzyme is denatured - it doesn't die since it was never alive.

The other thing to remember is that autolyse really isn't used to promote proteaase activity but to promote other more important enzymatic reactions  - namely amylase a and b which break down the bonds in starches to create the sugars that yeast and LAB need to eat to make CO2, ethanol and acids.  Without these catalysts, the poor sweet beasties would starve!

Salt can stabilize some enzymes and reactions but it has a bad effect on protease activity.  A low pH has a bad effect on amylase enzymes.  This is why SD and salt are not included in an autolyse - they just get in the way of what you are trying to accomplish.    Water and time is what you need for enzymes to work their magic.  If you want to autolyse for a long time it is best to do it at lower temperatures and shorter times for higher ones.

Here is a better post enzymes in baking - what they do, how they do it and what inhibits their activity.

http://www.classofoods.com/page1_7.HTML

Happy autolysing