Bread

Bit more complicated. Salt is hygroscopic and has an effect on the absorption of water into the flour, which in turn will affect things like gluten development (it's complicated, and I can't confess to understand all the mechanisms). To make things even more confusing, salt actually improves the dough structure overall.

The reason it's not so important to autolyse with the poolish is because there's not much more water to be absorbed by the flour, and it is the effect of salt on absorption that we're concerned about.

Say you have a recipe like so
Poolish: 500g water , 500g flour
Final dough:
500g flour, 200g water, 1kg poolish.

Because there's only 200g remaining of water, you'd only be benefitting from 200g of water autolysing in 500g flour, while you've essentially already had 500g of each flour and water getting an extended autolyse in the poolish

But say for example you made a recipe with a smaller proportion of poolish for whatever reason (slightly self defeating as generally a poolish should use half of the total flour to get the distinctive flavour and properties).
EG
Poolish: 150g flour, 150g water
Final Dough: 850g flour, 550g water, 300g poolish.

You'd probably want to autolyse, as there's a lot of flour and water left to incorporate.

If you're going to bake the same recipe again, you could always see if it benefits from an autolyse, but I'd guess it would be negligible.

Edit, TBH I think @Thrustvector has explained it better.

Edit 2: it was also noted that for slowly fermented breads, with reasonable hydrations >70%~, that the effect of autolyse was negligible on final product (according to experiments done for Modernist Baking, IIRC). I'm not sure if it factored in differences for mixing by hand though, was more looking at production baking.

This is the third loaf from my first starter, thanks for the instructions all. White flour and mixed seeds, 11 hour prove at room temp, cooked in a cast iron pot.
Way too much flour in my homemade proving basket, a tea towel and a colander!

Amazing.

Just received a text from the husband of the person who borrowed my Great Grandad's book all those years ago. They just found it at her parents house. Her Dad is a chef and had borrowed it from her and forgot about it!

Pretty coincidental to receive that the day after buying a new one!

Ha, win anyway!

Fuck! Lol, nice to have a spare copy that isn't so precious though. Recipe books tend to have a rough life.

On a similar note, I lost a £200 watch, spent months looking for it. Moved house, and eventually caved and bought a new one. About a week later I put on a jacket I hadn't worn in a long time and the old watch fell out the sleeve.

Batch three of pretzels. My shaping is slowly getting better. They taste spot on though and that's the main thing.

Still not confident at starting with sourdough bread, this thread makes me very jealous haha.

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Still too flat for my liking, but it's getting better. I've been doing the retard in a bowl but it keeps sticking no matter how much rice flour I throw in so I've just ordered a banneton. Should help in not squashing the loaf while trying to free it from the bowl.

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I keep banging these out!
Take the plunge you’ll love it!

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Go for it, financial risks are of the order £10! And the best way to learn is to do.

And here's the poolish result. Super light and chewy texture, flavour a touch stronger than a quick loaf but not amazingly so. Pretty floppy out of the basket but oven spring pretty good.

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Thanks guys. I'll give it a bash. Like you say, what's the worst that could happen. Anyone wanna social distance me some starter? 😆

Want some dried yeast?

Or wet yeast?

I got yeast. Just trying to skip the make a starter part.

Loaf number 7 #2 this one was shoved in the fridge overnight and baked first thing yesterday morning.
Tastes banging when toasted...
Will retard in the fridge again..

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I used the recommendation from @nefarious and mixed 25g of flour with 25g of water everyday in a clean kilner jar with the rubber removed, and was baking with it after 5 days, very easy.

Can anyone recommend a proving basket I can get online?

Noice! Stoked that it worked out.

Any of the wicker proving baskets on amazon would be fine, I'd suggest getting one with a cloth if you want to make rye breads or other very sticky doughs.

Love all the tips on here, thanks for the vote of confidence!

(Or not amazon)

looks cracking!

Overproved my loaf, was cooking a ruby so experimented. Coated both sides in warm ghee and crust bro’dit with additional finger pokes.

Reckon you can see the difference it makes?

Things got worse before they got better with an effort that went in the bin, it collapsed into pieces leaving the baneton.

After a strong chat where I explained that the time, energy & resource costs would currently be better spent at the local shop that sells both Trove & Handmade Bakery sourdough loaves, my partner has resumed responsibility. She has taken on the tips given here and this is the result which is the best looking in 8 weeks.

Thanks lfgss!

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Not really. Only thing I’m thinking is the retarded bread is denser, spongier

Oh wow. Where to start?

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