I baked four mini loaves, from left to right:
– autolyse and tartine shaping
– autolyse and no shaping (caddy clasp into banneton)
– fermentolyse and tartine shaping
– fermentolyse and no shaping
All of the loaves started bulk fermentation at 11:00am and ended at around 8:00pm at 72 degrees. They were then shaped, put into 6.5inch oval bannetons overnight for cold proof and then baked next morning covered at 375F for 30 mins, uncovered for 8 mins.
I found that the autolysed loaves baked taller and were much fluffier/softer tasting! The fermentolysed loaves felt chewier. The no shaping loaves also had slightly better ears (I’m still working on this 😅).
In my eyes the 2nd loaf (autolyse and no shaping) was the winner but I’m curious to hear your perspectives!
by soft_boiled_egg
29 Comments
**Hello soft_boiled_egg,**
Thank you for posting. [Here is the posting prompt](https://imgur.com/a/De6AKiQ) if you need to read it again. Our Rules are [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sourdough/wiki/sourdoughrules/) 🙂
Still have questions? [Modmail us :-)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Sourdough).
– #**[READING CRUMB GUIDE ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sourdough/wiki/reading_crumb/)**
[Wiki index](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sourdough/wiki/index/), & [FAQ Beginner starter guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sourdough/s/gnqFg7osBO)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Sourdough) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This one convinced me to switch to autolyse from fermentolyse 😁
I am team Autolyse lol
What is fermentolyse?
I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE DO RESEARCH, this is so great : )
more of this kind of content, plz
Autolyze/tartine would be my vote. I like the open crumb and round shape.
Can you summarize or TL/DR the autolyse (how long? just flour/.water?) and the tartine method of shaping in loaf #1?
I always stand mixing and do a 30-60 min autolyse personally, just seem to have the best results for me that way
Honestly I’d be ecstatic to get any of these as the end result at this point 😅 but if I had to choose, I think Autolyse & no shaping is my preferred texture.
I’m wondering how much using the stand mixer contributed to the overall outcome vs mixing by hand or with a dough whisk, if anyone can weigh in🤔
Autolyse and no shaping looks the best to me!! I personally find the tartine shaping method not good for my breads…I don’t know why
No. 2, autolyse and caddy clasp. Wow on a limited shaping loaf!! i will need to watch a video on caddy clasp as I vaguely remember it as suspending it from folding in half, but not much more!
I love this, so interesting!!!
Fairly new baker here. Can you elaborate on the “no shaping” technique? I assume there’s at least some kind of preshape-into-rounds step?
#2 for sure. I’ve been fermentolysing with no data and wondering why my ears suck. Now I know. Thank you OP.
Whenever I use the caddy clasp shaping technique my loafs always come out looking the best, that’s is my preferred method! Thank you for sharing!!!!
> baked next morning covered at 375F for 30 mins, uncovered for 8 mins.
i’m still somewhat inexperienced – is 375f correct? this seems odd to me.
thank you for sharing your experiment – it’s very interesting to see the differences side by side!
Better shaping technique will give you better ears since they will expand better. Also how deep you score them and the angle.
flour and water for 1 hour minimum, then the starter or yeast, is a key step to have better results, and
Sometime ago, I read that a baguette tradition contest Champion did that but I didn’t understand why
Why not both?
Thank you for your research. Will try!
https://preview.redd.it/b8ahzp2ylb8f1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b91ca081236d53115fb982a7853c3e8cf6ad3d01
I joined this sub in hopes it would spark my interest into actually making bread. So basically I know nothing. Now that that’s been established, this looks like 4 identical loafs of bread to me lol
Great job ! This is really neat to see side by side. Could you explain how you use your mixer in the recipe? I got a 6 qt and I’ve been trying but the crumb comes out soo dense after baking. Coil folds probably help?
I’m curious about the bake temp. I usually bake at 450 for like 25 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered at 425.
whats the reasoning for baking at 375? Is that just an adjustment because of the smaller loaf size, or is that your normal temp?
I always do a one hour autolyse. The reason is 60% of my flour is home milled flour and the remainder is a strong bread flour. Neither one is malted. Without the malt in the flour, it takes much much longer for the complex carbohydrates to break down into simple sugars. That one hour autolyse allows those complex carbs to break down so that when you add your starter, it actually has food from the beginning.
If I used commercial bread flour, that is malted and I did an autolyse at all, it would probably be 15 minutes or so.
9 hour bulk ferment seems crazy! Is this more than double in size?
Very cool. Also I agree with your assessment.
So when you say autolyse you mean just that you added the levain later, right?