December 19, 2021 - 9:46am
Distilled Water, Minerals, and Yeast
Where I presently live, we get our municipal city water from Lake Michigan. For reasons beyond this post, this year I bought myself a home water distiller and was stunned to see the "impurities" it removed. Indeed, after only two gallons it has a bed of crap baked onto the bottom of the boiler that I'll have to use acid to dissolve.
Anyway, I'd like to start making bread using distilled water, but in researching past posts, minerals are necessary. So, can anyone tell me exactly which minerals are needed, and how much for, say, 600g of flour? The closest I've found was Mike Avery adding .03g of epsom salts per loaf, and he reported it made a "big difference."
Are there mineral supplements for bread? As always, thanks in advance.
Share
wlaut, yeast doesn't mind distilled water in your bread dough. Your bread flour does. When you mix flour with distilled water gluten doesn't form as well as with hard water, so your bread won't rise much or won't rise as tall.
I use only distilled water in my sourdough starters, to protect yeast and bacteria, but I bake with tap water, both yeasted and sourdough. I do adjust my distilled water with minerals. I tried two methods and found one that I like better. They both work, i.e they both harden water to the level, suitable for bread dough.
1) for water remineralization you can use trace mineral drops. 2-3 drops per each cup of water. For bread more is better. I.e 3 drops per each 8oz (240g) of water is best.
How much water will you need per 600g we do not know, because it depends on the recipe. Sometimes a cup of water is enough if there are eggs, butter, honey, milk in the recipe, sometimes three or more cups if it's a batter bread or high hydration formula.
There are many brands of mineral drops available. Here's one example
https://www.amazon.com/Trace-Minerals-Research-Concentrace-Mineral/dp/B005BP5UCM/ref=sr_1_48?crid=2DCKADJPDNZGI&keywords=Salts+liquid&qid=1639942862&s...
2) using minerals with vitamin C (ascorbic acid). This is my preferred method. It fortifies gluten better which is important in bread baking. I add about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of powder per loaf. I use this one, Natural Vitality brand.
https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Vitality-Calm-Plus-Drink/dp/B008OXG6G2/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2ZWO4Z9N5IVKZ&keywords=natural+vitality+calm+cat&qid=1639943577&...
But this one by Whole Family Naturals will work just as well.
They all have calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C in them and I prefer using my measuring tsp and dry powders better than drops.
Thank you very much for the info and product suggestions. I'm adding them to my shopping list and will try them out.
So far, my hydrations have tended to be 65% to 80%, depending on what blend (if any) grains I'm milling.
Thanks again!
Has that Natural Vitality Calm Plus one changed? I see lots of bad reviews on Amazon saying it used to be great but has recently changed for the worse.
I had a similar problem with the Nutricost brand of calcium ascorbate. The first canister I received contained a crystalline solid that dissolved readily in water. The next time I ordered it, the solid was an amorphous powder that did not dissolve in water even after several minutes. I was able to send it back.
I have since just used ascorbic acid and a neutralizing base like calcium or magnesium carbonate, or even potassium bicarbonate. Much cheaper that way, and I think that's what is happening with some of these products. Instead of being uniform solids, the materials are now blends of solids that may not be homogeneous or in the right proportion.
Gary, one reviewer said that the company switched to magnesium carbonate in the formula, which is exactly the form of magnesium found in drinking water, so it's perfect for water remineralization purposes in the sense of magnesium carbonate content per cup of water. It might not dissolve immediately, once added to water, but who cares, acid from fermentation will do it eventually inside the bread dough.
I am in Canada and get mine from amazon.ca, mine has and always had magnesium citrate. Mine doesn't say where it was manufactured, only its distributor here in Toronto is indicated.
In any case, I don't use it myself for my body, to review the product and its medicinal properties, and my sourdough starters and their microbes are very happy with it, the starters have excellent gluten and rise high.
I have a related question about ascorbic acid. Is there any benefit adding it to predominantly rye doughs? The gluten-forming proteins are different in rye, so can ascorbic acid help at all?
Not that I know of. Rye has some gluten, but rye dough is a foam, it lacks elasticity and fortifying its gluten is not what you would want anyways.
If it's a blend of flours and you want it to have more wheat properties than rye properties, a different style of crumb, then yes, add vitamin C. It will improve its crumb and fermentation tolerance.
Ascorbic acid makes wheat flour stronger which is not always desirable in rye breads. Sometimes you want rye blend bread look and fee like rye as you bite it and chew it than like wheat and choose the weakest wheat possible for the blend.
I use RO water - it seems to work well but I would like to try adding minerals (to my coffee as well). Mariana, I am on a well west of Toronto, what is the brand of additive you use?
Glenn, I am in High Park area, I use Natural Calm Plus, sold in organic food stores in Bloor West Village or on amazon.ca. This one.
It's the original formula. Unflavored, as shown on amazon.ca. They apparently have a new one with stevia, mine is a completely unflavored one. I got it cheap the last time I shopped when it was on sale on naturalcalm.ca website.
I only use it to adjust distilled water for sourdough starters. If I had to use RO water in bread dough, I would adjust it as well. But for coffee and tea I do not know, never tried that one. See if you like the taste.
That is the ONLY water I use to make bread since we have well water and I never, ever had a problem using Distilled Water and Instant Yeast, or any type of yeast.
Ah-ha! ("I see" said the blind man.)
Now I understand the ol' trick about putting an empty/clean egg-shell in water when boiling it to make coffee. I never understood, before now, the why, and under what conditions it was helpful.
This thread brings it all together.
Coffee geek info:
According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, water for brewing coffee "should be clean and odor free, but not distilled or softened. Ideal Total Dissolved Solids are 125-175 ppm, but should not be less than 100 ppm or more than 250 ppm." It's possible, but unlikely, that the eggshell may give water that is too hard, depending on the beginning water hardness.
I have private well that has very hard water. I blend the well water with distilled water for brewing coffee to achieve the desired TDS, measured with a TDS meter. These TDS meters are relatively inexpensive for those interested.
But not tea. Soft water for tea.