Why Water Is Important For Pizza Dough

At Backyard Brick Oven, we love authentic, backyard-style pizza. Our customers always look for ways to make top-notch pizza and find the best ingredients. In today’s post, we’ll teach you why water is important for pizza dough.

You might think that flour and yeast are more important, but that’s not true. The kind and quality of water you use in your pizza dough affects the consistency, flavor, and quality. So, read on to learn more about how water makes a night and day difference in pizza dough.

Factors To Consider When Choosing Water

You need to think about three factors when you’re choosing what water you’ll use: pH, purity, and hardness. If one isn’t right, the whole dough-making process will not be ideal.

pH

pH is the measure of acidity or base in anything. pH ranges from 1 (most acidic) to 14 (most basic). The best pH for pizza dough sits around 7 (neutral). This explains why New York has some of the best pizza in the world—the water is about 7.2 on the pH scale.

Water that is too acidic or basic will disrupt proper yeast fermentation. For places where water is too acidic, use more salt. Salt suppresses the acid that will break down the yeast too much. If the water is too basic, use less salt. Aside from pH, water purity is also essential.

Purity

To achieve purity, filter city water. City water supplies are notorious for having high levels of chlorine. Chlorine affects the taste of water and dough. It also affects how the dough forms. You may consider using bottled water to make your pizza dough the best it can be. Although, you should test any water you use for dough with a pH kit. This way, you’re sure the water you use has a neutral pH level and won’t affect the flavor or consistency of your dough.

Hardness

Hard water has a high mineral content, and soft water has low mineral content. When it comes to making pizza, you want to aim somewhere in the middle. Water that sits around the 75 to 110 parts-per-million mark is optimal. Yeast feeds on the minerals in the water, but you don’t want too much or too little.

Hard water causes the dough to become rigid, but soft water makes it too loose. We like to aim for a dough with slight responsiveness and spring. Anything else will be too difficult to work with and won’t have the right consistency out of the oven.

Have Questions For The Experts?

Finally, you know why water is important for pizza dough. Do you have more questions? At Backyard Brick Ovens, we love answering questions and sharing our love for pizza. If you have any questions or are looking for your next pizza oven, contact us today!