Autolysis and kneading time

[EvanFitz96]

This question is based off my 70% hydration dough recipe I frequent for Napolitan pizza.

When I make a completely direct dough, I hand knead for 8 minutes timed (gentle and simple kneading for about 2-4 minutes, then slap and folds until the 8 minute mark goes off), I then (whether dough is completely smooth or not) let rest for 3 minutes, very lightly flour the top, flip, 'envelope', flip back over, and smooth for about 30 seconds until perfectly smooth, bulk ferment for an hour or two, ball, and CT 48hr (or more).

If I use a preferment taking up 25% of total flour (70% hydration) and autolyse the other 75% of the total flour (70% hydration as well) for 12 hours RT (same as preferment), after adding salt, should I cut down kneading time to say 6 or 4 minutes, or should I maintain the same kneading time as I would use for a direct dough?

PS: Should I autolyse at all? Is 12 hr RT too long for autolysis?

Thank you in advance!

[Yael]

I'm not a big fan of complicating things. Do you have a huge difference in the final product (with and without the autolyse) that justifies the autolyse?
It may help reduce the mixing time indeed (exactly how long I don't know, it depends on other factors, like the flour (strong or not), the mixer/mixing method...), maybe 30% time less?

A long time ago I read some article from Jeff Varasano, he was talking about autolyse and said that there didn't seem to have differences from 20 min and more. Of course, the longer the autolyse the more enzyme activity in the dough (which eventually might impact flavor and texture, like Pete'zza's test without yeast, that I made here: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=67433.0).

Maybe you can make different tests in a row (for example one with the autolyse and one without) and share the results with us, that's a good way to get answers 

[EvanFitz96]

Thank you again for your reply, I will run an experiment.
Starter without autolyse (control)
Starter with 12 hr autolyse
Starter 20-30 min autolyse

Results to come

I think I will keep a constant 8 min kneading time, and I'll let pictures and/or a video do the judging