autolyse

Autolyse is a bread-making technique where flour and water are mixed and left to rest before adding yeast or leavening.

This pause allows the flour to hydrate fully and gluten to begin developing, producing dough that's easier to work and bread with better texture.

The term comes from autolysis—self-digestion by enzymes.

After a thirty-minute autolyse, the dough was noticeably more extensible.