My sourdough went from sad pancake to perfect loaf in 48 hours after I stopped using tap water

For months, my starter was sluggish and my loaves were flat, no matter what flour I tried. I was using regular tap water from my kitchen sink (which I guess has a lot of chlorine in it). On a whim, I switched to bottled spring water from the store, and within two days, the starter doubled in size and got super bubbly. The next bake was a completely different story, with a great rise and an open crumb. Has anyone else had a simple switch like that totally fix their baking?

3 comments

3 Comments

martin.vera3mo ago

Found my flour was the real problem.

rowan_butler932mo ago

I actually had the same problem with tap water killing my starter, once I switched to filtered water from my fridge it came back to life in like a day and a half. The chlorine really does mess with the yeast more than people realize. Definitely worth trying the overnight trick with tap water if you don't want to buy bottled.

martin.vera3mo ago

Oh my god, YES. Same thing happened to me. My starter was just dead for weeks. I started leaving a jug of tap water out on the counter overnight before using it, the chlorine evaporates off. Total game changer and way cheaper than buying water. Also, if your water is super hard, that can mess with it too.