Is autolyse necessary for making doughnuts?

[Citrus]

I got this donut recipe from ilovecookingireland
here's the recipe

• 500g strong (bread) white flour
• 75g caster sugar, plus extra for coating
• 5g salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 15g fresh yeast (or 7g dried instant yeast)
• 250ml milk, room temp
• 1 large egg
• 75g butter, diced

Since my mixer is bad at mixing bread dough or similar, can I shorten the mixing time with autolyse for 30 minutes? So I'll incorporate 500g bread flour with 220g milk, mix until no dry lumps. I reserve the 30g milk to hydrate the instant dry yeast, had a bad experience not hydrating instant dry yeast resulting in dough with loads of pimples on the surface.

Should I autolyse my dough to cut mixing time? my mixer contributes a lot of heat from the mixing friction as I'm afraid my dough will turn warm

 

[retired baker]

I would follow the recipe, you're introducing problems before even trying it.
Put the ingredients in the bowl in this precise order.
Yeast
milk
egg
sugar
flour
salt
lemon
soft butter.
Mix to a smooth soft dough, if the mixer starts groaning just finish kneading by hand.

 

[Laurence]

Generally speaking, rich doughs don't benefit from an autolyse step but, if you're being particular, you may benefit from sieving the flour. Of course, once the dough is mixed, an overnight stay in the fridge does improve the flavour.
(however, a note of caution because different folks mean autolyse in different ways - I've seem some use the term whenever they use a starter, e.g. a poolish, biga, pate fermentee, etc.; I mean it in the French way - no starter and all the ingredients other than salt briefly mixed together and rested for 30-45 mins before the salt is added and the first kneading that starts the gluten development.
French-style autolyse:
No starter;
Plain dough (no eggs, butter, or sugar);
A plain bread flour, not a whole grain/wholemeal