Radiation has made me an enemy of mankind! Tartine over-autolyse
Well, it's edible, and even tastes good. I tried an 8 hour autolyse on a standard 75/25 KAF bf/ww Tartine 3 loaf at 85% hydration with no wheat germ. He says with harder flour you can overnight the autolyse, but wow did it feel weird. Went ahead with 8 S&Fs over the next 4 hours at 80F after incorporating salt and more water, but although it felt somewhat firmer it was clearly never going to withstand the bench rest. So I stuck it in the fridge for 3 days, thinking it might firm up a bit. Tonight I poured it onto the board, scooped half into a quart measuring cup, and heated a small le Creuset pot so that the sides would give it some structure. My wife took loaf 1 out prematurely, but I'm hoping loaf 2 is a bit less mushy inside, as I took it out at 214F.
Anyway. No more 8 hour autolyse for me. Shocked that I could make decent bread with 4 day old pancake batter.
Eli
I'm also amazed at how breadlike your 4 day old pancake batter was.
When I've done an autolyse that long, it's been all or mostly whole grain flour, not mostly white. That may make a difference.
How's it taste?
for a longer autolyse, leave out the starter, and incorporate it around the same time as the salt. The acidity is probably part of what did you dough in. An eight hour autolyse with just flour and water shouldn't do that, even if all white flour. Red whole wheat benefits more from the lengthy hydration period, but isn't the only flour you can do an eight hour rest with, as I sort of implied in my post above.
So yeah. If you want to try again sometime, try a shorter ingredient list.
It isn't bad... kind of a medium sour with a complex whole wheaty taste. Sadly the crust didn't brown much so there's no contributing flavor there. Toasted with butter it beats anything I can buy around me. I dont know if I'll try an 8 hour autolyse again... I'll probably go back to 30 minutes. I've been successful with 4 hours, but only tried it cause Robertson says you can. Thanks for the advice!
If you ever want to try a significantly higher percentage of (red) whole wheat flour, say, around 50% or more, I recommend the longer autolyse without the leaven. Less important, flavor-wise, if you're using white whole wheat, but still worth trying.
Like PR's whole grains book. Soaker and Sponge overnight autolyse and then epoxy in the morning.