The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Baking Breakthrough

Bakenstein's picture
Bakenstein

Baking Breakthrough

Hi all you busy bakers,

I have been struggling for a while with just not getting that beautiful light open airy texture to my doughs. Its come close at time with Pizzas and flatbreads but no cigar yet.

For some reason I just brought up baking breads with someone and they told me about using water that had been purified by reverse osmosis. Never to use just tap water.
Recently I was at my wits end as I always proof the yeast first and saw very little activity after 10 min. everything was done up to par. Threw it out the batch 2x's.
I opened a brand new yeast packet same result. So with that exact packet I retried everything again. This time with distilled water as you can't even trust the source of bottled water from the supermarket these days.

EUREKA!!!!

Beautiful foam doubled in the measuring cup ready to go into my awaiting 14 cups of flour for my weekly Pizza Baking Extravaganza. (Seven Pies one stuffed crust)

Everyone including Holiday company announced it was the best I've ever made. Been making Pizzas every Sunday since August.

Its pretty darn hard to get acclaim from East Coast Italians on Pizza as its a regional Heritage and the birthplace of pizza in the US.

Now for that Chicago Metallic Baguette Pan.....

HAPPY HOLIDAY BAKING !!! BE SAFE!!!!

Comments

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Wow. That is something. I'll have to give that a shot.

Thanks for the tip.

KazaKhan's picture
KazaKhan

I tried distilled water with a premix and the result was nothing short of stunning. I followed the exact same process as usual except for the water and it resulted in the best oven spring I ever had. I've only been bread making for a couple of months and didn't expect this to have much effect as I don't proof my yeast. It was also my first batch of bread to be completely eaten, in just a matter of hours too :)