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In 1974, Raymond Calvel, a professor at L’École Nationale Supérieure de Meunerie et des Industries Céréalières in Paris, developed a technique known as autolyse, in which flour and water are mixed together and allowed to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes before salt and yeast are incorporated.

Autolyse is like leaving a dog or a toddler alone with the Legos: They do the work of breaking them down for you.

This takes the rest of the night, in various stages, but I have to start by weighing out all the ingredients and prepping the dough through a process called “autolyse.”

To help offset this, I usually perform a longer autolyse — which is simply allowing the flour and water in a dough recipe to rest before adding the salt and preferment, or levain — brings much-needed extensibility to the dough.

This is especially true of sourdough, which doesn’t require yeast but does require patience over several days of fermentation to make a starter, and hours to autolyse and proof the dough and let it rise.