I have been making great bread of late but have a question regarding the French process of slowly adding a percentage of the total water after autolyse (40-60 minutes with starter) during the first few turns. I have been adding the salt after all but a small amount of water is left. Does anyone else do this? Does it make a difference versus adding all the water before the autolyse. I find that after autolyse my dough is already stiff/spongy and it is hard to incorporate the extra water into the dough without really breaking up the spongy dough with my fingers. I can’t complain about the outcome but was wondering if it was worth the additional effort…
I really dislike trying to add water (and starter) to a dryish flour mix. The first sourdough recipe I worked with had that procedure and I did it … but now, mostly, I mix everything at once, let it sit for an hour or so, do some stretch and folds, rest another hour and then do most of the bulk in the refrigerator. I like my results.
All of that said, the only way you will know for you is to try a different method 
in your conditions and see what you think. It seems like there are as many techniques as there are bakers and even among the “pros” there are variations in method.
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