Autolyse, Vital Gluten, Oven Temp ?s

CountryBoy,

Good questions! I think the reason that cookbooks are so different is that bread baking is remarkably flexible. Some ,French bakers, for example, make their baguettes by fermenting about 1/4 of the flour with a tiny amount of yeast for 12-16 hours and then they mix it all together with the rest for a relatively short final fermentation period of 3-4 hours. Others ferment all the dough for as long as 24 hours with a tiny amount of yeast. Others do ... well ... a lot of different stuff. And all can make great bread.


So learning to bake great bread is more about understanding maxims and broad guidelines than following precise instructions. Cookbooks, of course, don't really lend themselves to broad advice, though the better ones (BBA for instance) discuss these guidelines. When someone buys a cookbook, he or she wants specific instructions to bake a loaf, and since different cooks have different ways of making their bread, they give different specific instructions.

Anyway, there are answers to your questions, though. So I'll give it a shot.

#1-Re Autolyse: some say 15 mins and others 60 mins.

The purpose of the autolyse is to allow the flour to absorb water and start developing the gluten on its own. That's why most people recommend leaving out the salt during the autolyse -- the salt slows down the flour's absorption of water (that's also why you don't add salt to dry beans while they're cooking, as I discovered recently -- no more crunchy beans!). By autolysing, you shouldn't have to knead as much and the flour is oxidized less, which theoretically improves flavor. It probably also gives enzymes within the flour time to start breaking down staches into sugars before the yeast begins its work, but I'm just speculating there.

I like a long autolyse of about 60 minutes, but when I don't have that kind of time, I'll only do 15 minutes. The longer you let it autolyze, the less kneading you'll have to do. You could sort of think of the "no-knead" technique as an extreme autolyze. When I make my own white flour sourdough for instance, I mix the ingredients together just until everything is wet (salt, starter, the whole shebang) and then let it sit at room temperature for about 12 hours. Sitting for that long, the dough essentially kneads itself and needs just a good stretch-and-fold to fully develop the dough. I then let the shaped loaf rise for about 3 hours at 85 degrees F.

#2-Vital Gluten is suggested for more chewy bread but I see no difference.

Vital wheat gluten increases the strength of your flour by adding more of the proteins that form gluten. Pastry flour, for instance, is about 6-8% protein, which is not enough to make bread (but perfect for pancakes, muffins and waffles, where you don't want gluten development). All-purpose flour is about 10-11.5%, which is enough for bread and will produce a more tender crumb. Bread flour is usually 12% or more, producing big loaves with a fairly chewy crumb. I like all-purpose for my breads, but if I've incorporated a lot of goodies (grains, dried fruits, nuts) I like bread flour for the extra heft.

You shouldn't need vital wheat gluten unless you're making 100% whole wheat flour bread. The sharp edges of the bran cut the gluten strands, which results in a more dense loaf than white flour. Even then, though, if you've got strong, good quality whole wheat flour, you don't necessarily need to add vital wheat gluten. I don't, but many others like the effect it has on the loaves.

#3-Sourness: I put my dough in the fridge after it is shaped and the final loaf is still not sour. I try thick or thin starter and still not sour. My homemade starter is fine for having the bread rise but just not for sour. Is the idea of homemade starter a myth and do I have to buy one for real sour?

There are a couple of ways to get a more sour bread. One is time. When the dough has doubled, for instance, gently degass it and let it rise a second time before you shape it. This will give the bacteria more time to make the acids that make the bread sour.

The most important factor, though, it seems, is temperature. If you can keep the dough at about 85 degrees F (which is roughly the temperature where the bacteria and yeast are happiest) while it ferments, even if only when it's shaped and doing its final rise, that should make it more sour. Some folks put their bread in a cold oven with the light on. I take a picnic cooler and invert a cereal bowl at the bottom and place the bread on the bowl. I then toss a cup of boiling water in the bottom and close it up. Every couple of hours, I throw another cup inside, and it stays in the 80s, usually. Good enough, anyway.

Your starter will also improve in flavor as it develops. My starter is about a year old, and it's producing breads that have a much more complex flavor than they did when it was just a few weeks old. That said, there's no harm in ordering a starter. You can get a great one for free from Carl's Friends.

#4 Baking temp- Rose Beranbaum in the Bread Bible sets the oven at 450 and others at 350 degrees; is there a difference?

It just depends on what kind of bread you want. 350 degrees will give you sandwich bread -- a softer crust with a relatively tender crumb. 450 degrees gives you a quick, hot bake for hearth bread -- crunchy crust, chewy crumb.

I am beginning to wonder how much in the world of bread baking is myth and how much is reality based. Thanks.....

Heh. Well, that's the thing about baking bread. There's often not one right way, but rather many paths to take in order to make great bread.