How an 'autolyse' kneads your dough for you

Mix water into bread flour, about as much as the flour seems to want to absorb, without real kneading. Make sure there are no dry patches; they are hard to knead out later.

Cover the dough and leave it; 20 minutes was enough in every test (bakers give 15 minutes to an hour).

Knead briefly; the rested dough reaches a windowpane - stretched thin enough to see light through - with only quick, sloppy kneading.

Variation: leave the salt out of the autolyse and knead it in afterwards, since salt shields the charges on the gluten and makes the rest less effective in theory; little difference was noticed in practice.

Knead in the salt, barley syrup and yeast after the flour and water have rested.

Variation: bloom dry yeast in the dough during the autolyse, combining the two steps; no difference in elasticity was noticed.