Comments on: The Ultimate Guide to Autolyse Bread Dough

By: Gary Gibbons

Gary Gibbons — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:37:52 +0000

I have been using autolyse recently, and must admit the difference it makes in both the dough mixes and the baked product.
I had one mix that had a high amount of liquid levain in the recipe, and the balance of water to flour otherwise was fairly small, about 20% or so. I did autolyse an equal 50:50 ratio of water to flour, which really didn't have a huge effect over all.
I'll next try the autolyse method on a combined batch with full hydration from the levain, and see how that goes.

Thanks for the info!!

By: Ewen

Ewen — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 22:46:56 +0000

Hi Maurizio,

Thanks for the great article! I’ve been seeing others recommend fermentolyse instead of autolyse to streamline the process and I notice you do not discuss this anywhere. Do you have any thoughts or experience on fermentolyse?

By: uga

uga — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 07:08:59 +0000

i'd like to ask about fermenting bread dough in amount of oil or soak the dough in the oil, what's the name for the process and technique? (its likely to make roti canai or roti maryam from indonesia)

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 13:07:25 +0000

In reply to Mark.

Well it turns out I need to actually mix the flour and water together longer and just keep scraping down the sides.

Very beginner lesson lol, but posting in case anyone else ever runs into this.

Thanks again for the great book!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 23:35:05 +0000

Hi! New baker here who purchased your book and its been great.

One thing I notice is the water amount called for in the autolyse step in the recipies are far lower than what my flour seems to need to be mixed. I always feel like I have to add an extra 100g or so. Always use king arthur ap or bread flour. Even happens with higher hydration dough recipes. I seem to get good results, but curious why this seems to happen.

By: Lori

Lori — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 22:12:29 +0000

I just began my journey with 100% fresh milled (home milled) sourdough vs conventional. I’m curious in that FMF methods on line, a very long autolyse is stressed over and over again, contrary to your advice in this article . Would you kindly elaborate on the discrepancy as I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I initially came to your site with a different question regarding FMF but read your article and decided to ask that question first.

My real question initially (again with FMF as my focus) is there any benefit to performing S&Fs during a long autolyse (again based on the recommended procedures I have read for a very long autolyse with FMF), prior to adding any starter to the dough. I’m curious about whether or not there are any benefits to trying this, or even any detriments.

By: Nico S Candelaria

Nico S Candelaria — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 10:26:21 +0000

Hello Maurizio,
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us! Could I use my kitchenaid mixer for the autolyse and mixing steps? How long and at what settings would that be at? Thank you so much!

By: Manuel Ignacio López Quintero

Manuel Ignacio López Quintero — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 13:41:49 +0000

Excellent article on autolysis! What are your thoughts on using this technique with all-purpose (AP) flour or low-protein flours? In your AP-only recipe, you don’t include this step, opting instead for a series of stretch and folds during mixing. Why don’t you recommend autolysis in this case? I thought that since low-protein flours have weaker dough strength, allowing the dough to develop naturally during autolysis would be beneficial.

By: Maurizio Leo

Maurizio Leo — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 16:05:18 +0000

In reply to Peter R. Peter, thanks for getting my book! Yes, definitely use your proofer during autolyse - this will help maintain a consistent dough temperature, especially in that cool stone cottage. It'll give you much better control over fermentation from the start. Let me know how it goes!

By: Peter R

Peter R — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 07:36:22 +0000

Hi Maurizio

First thanks for your fabulous resources, made even better by your book Santa recently delivered!

Quick question on autolyse temperature: I tend to autolyse on the counter top, which can be pretty cool here at this time of year in a stone cottage in the UK. So after getting the dough to DDT at the first mix it usually cools during autolyse; depending on the recipe there may be little or no additional water to add to warm it up again. So would I be better off autolysing in the proofer box with its temp set around DDT?

Thanks in advance
Peter