Grocery store baker showed me why my sourdough kept bombing

There's this older lady at the Publix bakery near my house who's been baking for like 40 years. I was grabbing bread last Tuesday and she saw me looking at the starter they sell, so I told her my loaves always come out flat and gummy. She said I was probably feeding my starter with tap water full of chlorine and to switch to filtered water or let the tap sit out overnight. I tried it this weekend with a batch of white flour and the difference was night and day - actually got a real oven spring for the first time. Has anyone else had a random stranger fix a problem you'd been fighting for months?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_bell11d ago

Good point but letting tap water sit out won't fix chloramine, only evaporation works for chlorine...

nelson.gavin10d ago

is it really that big of a deal though?