New Word of the Day: Autolyse

One of the greatest things about cooking is that there is always something new to learn. Last night, I was a student assistant at an artisan bread class at the Midwest Culinary Institute taught by Sara Schuk and Mark Frommeyer of Blue Oven Bakery. Because my husband Jeff is the real bread baker in our house, I was given instructions to bring back all of the information that I learned to him.

Sara and Mark are a wealth of information. This was the first bread class that they had ever taught. They shared recipes for 3 seed and whole wheat loaves. When I first walked into the classroom, Sara was making the 3 seed dough. She told me that it was autolysing. She swears by this step, where you mix only the flour and water together and let the mixture rest for 20 minutes. Then you add the other ingredients and knead.

Jeff had heard of this technique, but had not tried it. He consulted his Bread Baker's Apprentice book by Peter Reinhart and sure enough there it was. I'm not quite sure that I understand all of the implications of autolyse, but it has something to do with promoting hydration and helps cut down on kneading or overworking the dough.

Other tips I learned from Sara:

*Always mix bread dough on lowest speed of mixer even if a recipe says medium speed, just mix it longer
*Add water to your mixing bowl first, then add flour (then autolyse!)
*Bread dough should be somewhat sticky, a dry dough will yield dry bread
*Add salt at the very end
*Taste your dough to make sure it has enough salt
*When shaping, create as much surface tension as you can
*Score bread right before baking using a lame (a thin sharp blade used for baking)
*If baking on a pizza stone, preheat on your oven's highest setting for at least an hour
*Use ice cubes in a pan under the stone to create steam in the oven

You can find Blue Oven at Findlay Market on Saturdays and at Awakenings Coffeehouse in Hyde Park Square on Sunday mornings in the winter. From June through October, they are a regular vendor at the Hyde Park Farmers Market on Sundays from 9:30-1:30.