January 5, 2012 - 6:43am
Should sweet enriched dough be Autolyzed?
Hello Bakers,
I'm only asking this question because the last time I attempted to autolyze the brioche dough the loaf seemed like it was lacking salt. I've been using this formula for years with only difference I autolyzed the salt for 45 min. on that bake.
Thank you in advance,
Ray
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for an autolyse is to allow the flour to hydrate and the gluten to begin to develop in the absence of a mixer. This is done to shorten time on the mixer and reduce the oxidation of the flour due to mechanical mixing.
For brioche, you will be doing an intensive mix anyway, so most of the benefits of the autolyse will be lost. Because of the amount of butter, eggs, and sugar in brioche, the oxidation (and loss of flavor coming from the carotenoids in the flour) is not of great importance.
So, no, in general one would not use autolyse with such a highly enriched dough.
For most bakers, time is of the essence, so why waste elapsed time on a process where the benefits are not significant? So also, in general, autolyse is primarily used in lean doughs where the flavor coming from the flour is particularly important.
I'm don't know why your dough would be lacking in saltiness, unless you didn't add enough salt. Autolyse really shouldn't impact this.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for clarifying this.
Ray
What if one used whole wheat flour to make broiche? Would you want to autolyse?