Tried bread baking with tap water vs filtered and wow what a difference

I started baking sourdough 2 months ago as a random thing to do on weekends. First 3 loaves came out dense and barely rose. I was about to give up until my cousin who bakes for a farmers market in Austin asked what water I use. Tap here has chlorine and it was killing my starter. Switched to filtered water and my last loaf doubled in size with actual air pockets. Anyone else run into water issues with their bread experiments?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_thomas11d ago

Kill your starter is exactly what happened to me too. I used tap water for the first few weeks and my starter was so sluggish it barely bubbled. Swapped to filtered water from the fridge and it started doubling in like 6 hours. The chlorine really messes with the wild yeast. One thing I learned too is letting the filtered water sit out overnight on the counter helps the starter even more. I also started using bottled spring water when I travel and my sourdough has been way more consistent. The water temp matters too cold water from the fridge slows everything down so I let it get to room temp before mixing.

gavin_allen4811d ago

I dunno man, I've been using plain old tap water for years and my starter is a beast. Letting it sit out overnight sounds like more work than it's worth to me. Maybe it's a location thing or my water's just different.