Poolish + autolyse
I'm wondering if anyone more experienced (which probably means everyone who reads this forum) can offer some thoughts / insights on using poolish and autolyse in the same recipe. Is this worthwhile? If so, any tips on combining the two to make the final dough?
I have only made one batch this way, and have not yet baked it (it's currently bulk fermenting). My questions arise because of the time and effort it took to mix the poolish and autolyse together.
I made the poolish yesterday with 200 gm AP flour, 200 gm water and 1 gm instant yeast. After mixing, I left it at room temp for ~7 hours then refrigerated it overnight.
This morning I mixed 200 gm AP flour, 200 gm whole wheat flour and 280 gm water so that the total hydration will be 80%. After 30 minutes, when I tried to mix the poolish and the autolysed flour plus another 2 gm yeast and 10 gm salt, it wouldn't combine easily at all. At first, I tried folding, but that barely did anything, so I ended up squishing the mix between my fingers to break apart the autolyse. This wasn't a horrific chore, but it certainly wasn't fun either, and it took over 15 minutes of doing this until I could no longer feel any lumps of autolyse.