several glasses of tap water and bottled mineral water, next to a pizza

Bottled vs. Tap: What’s the Best Water for Pizza Dough? [How Water Type Affects Dough Performance]

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Water is a key ingredient in dough and can greatly affect its properties. You may have even heard stories claiming that NY water is essential for making authentic NY pizza or bagels – but is there any truth to that? In this article, we’ll explore how water impacts pizza dough, and tackle a commonly debated question: what kind of water should you use in your dough?

Water in Pizza Dough: Introduction

This article discusses the role of water as an ingredient in dough, rather than focusing on the dough’s water content (dough hydration).

Debates about the type of water used in dough aren’t as lively as those about ingredients like flour or yeast. However, water can significantly affect the dough.

In this context, two key properties of water influence the dough:

  1. The hardness, or mineral content, of the water.
  2. The acidity level (pH) of the water.

Water Hardness/Softness

Water hardness is a measurement of the water’s mineral content, particularly calcium and magnesium. “Hard” water contains a high concentration of these minerals, while “soft” water has a lower amount.

Water hardness is quantified by the concentration of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), commonly expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/L). The table below classifies water hardness values globally:

Hardness Levelmg/L (ppm) CaCO₃mmol/L (Europe)gpg (US)°dH (Germany)
Soft Water0 – 600 – 0.60 – 3.50 – 4.2
Moderately Soft60 – 1200.6 – 1.23.5 – 74.2 – 8.4
Moderately Hard120 – 1801.2 – 1.87 – 10.58.4 – 12.6
Hard Water180 – 3001.8 – 310.5 – 17.512.6 – 21
Very Hard Water> 300> 3> 17.5> 21

To check the water hardness in your area, a quick Google search should provide the information (“water hardness in [your location]”).

Hard water minerals contribute to the formation of scale or limescale. When heated, magnesium and especially calcium undergo a chemical reaction, creating scale that adheres to pipes or heating elements, such as in electric kettles.

The harder the water, the more calcium and magnesium it contains, increasing the likelihood of scale buildup.

In general, hard water is often considered healthier than soft water because it contains essential minerals.

How Water Hardness Affects the Dough

In the context of dough, the mineral of particular interest is calcium.

Calcium acts as a gluten strengthener, much like salt, by enhancing the chemical bonds between the gluten-forming proteins. Consequently, higher calcium content in the water leads to a stronger, more elastic dough.

In simpler terms, the type of water used, specifically its hardness, has a direct and significant impact on the dough’s behavior and strength. The harder the water, the stronger the dough will be.

The minerals present in water also influence yeast activity. Higher mineral content increases yeast activity, resulting in faster fermentation.

For this reason, when making pizza dough, it’s best to use hard water, and the harder – the better.

It’s best to avoid using reverse osmosis water. Reverse osmosis strips water of all its minerals, including calcium, which inevitably results in a weaker dough.

Soft or distilled water is also less ideal for dough making.

And what about bottled natural mineral water or spring water?

Despite its name, mineral water doesn’t necessarily contain more calcium than tap water. The calcium content (and other minerals) depends on the source of the water. Depending on your location, it’s possible that the mineral water available to you has less calcium than your tap water.

For example, where I live, the tap water is hard and contains twice as much calcium as bottled “mineral” water.

Water Acidity (pH Level)

pH, which stands for “Potential/Power of Hydrogen,” measures the acidity or alkalinity (basicity) of a liquid solution.

pH levels range from 0 to 14:

  • A pH lower than 7 indicates acidity.
  • A pH higher than 7 indicates alkalinity.
  • A pH of 7 is considered neutral.

In the context of water, pH measures the acidity or alkalinity of drinking water. Water suppliers can adjust the pH level to ensure that drinking water is safe for consumption and does not damage pipes or appliances like washing machines.

For instance, water that is too acidic (low pH) can corrode copper pipes and release harmful substances into the water. On the other hand, water that is too alkaline (high pH) can cause sediment buildup in pipes and encourage the growth of bacteria, which often thrive in non-acidic environments.

According to World Health Organization regulations, drinking water must have a pH between 6.5 and 9.5.

Unlike information about water hardness, the pH level of water in specific areas is not always publicly available. However, you can easily check the acidity level of your water using litmus paper (pH strips), which are inexpensive and available at pharmacies and health food stores.

In the picture below, you can see a test of tap water using low-sensitivity litmus paper (1-14). Higher sensitivity litmus papers are also available, designed for testing narrower ranges for more accurate results (e.g., 7.1-7.9, 6.1-6.9, etc.).

pH test for tap water using litmus paper
Testing the pH of tap water with litmus paper (resulted in a pH of 7).

How Water pH Affects the Dough

Yeast is an organism that thrives in an acidic environment. Therefore, when making dough, it’s best to use water that is neutral or close to neutral, ideally with a pH of up to 7.5.

Using water with a pH above 7.5 may slow down yeast activity at the beginning of fermentation until the yeast produces enough acids to lower the dough’s pH. On the other hand, using acidic water (with a pH lower than 6.8) can speed up fermentation.

If you know your water is alkaline (with a pH above 7.5), you can replace 2% of the water in the recipe with standard vinegar to acidify the dough and lower its initial pH. For example, if your dough contains 200 grams of water, replace 4 grams of water with vinegar.

That said, using vinegar to acidify the dough or obsessing over the pH of your water is not necessarily recommended, as it will only have a slight effect on the fermentation rate (whether faster or slower), which can be adjusted/controlled in other ways.

Conclusion: What is the Best Water for Pizza Dough?

In most cases, it’s best to use tap water for making pizza dough.

“Tap water” also includes any filtered water that does not undergo reverse osmosis, such as water from filters, water dispensers, and various types of under-sink filtration systems (2 or 3 stages).

Filtration systems that do not use reverse osmosis do not strip water of its minerals and have no effect on acidity. Thus, in terms of suitability for dough, such water is comparable to unfiltered tap water.

What types of water should you avoid? As mentioned, water that undergoes reverse osmosis or soft water are not ideal (unless you’re aiming for a more extensible dough).

Mineral/Spring water can also be used, but in most cases, tap water remains the better choice.

The only exception for using tap water is if it has an unpleasant taste that affects the flavor of the dough (which should not occur under normal conditions). In that case, using bottled mineral water is a reasonable alternative.

In conclusion, the water that is most readily available to us – tap water – will, in the vast majority of cases, be the best choice for making pizza dough.

Bonus: A Funny Story About Water and Pizza Dough

I was once told by a pizzaiolo who considers himself a dough expert the following:

“Tap water contains chlorine that kills the yeast. If you want to use tap water in your pizza dough, you must aerate the water in an open container for at least 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate”

While it’s true that tap water contains chlorine – a chemical added by municipalities to prevent the growth of pathogens and other contaminants – the concentrations are minimal and strictly regulated. Chlorine is considered a carcinogen, so its levels in water are closely monitored.

The low concentrations of chlorine found in tap water should have no effect on yeast activity or any other aspects of the dough.

If you have a filtration system with a charcoal filter, it should effectively remove all chlorine from the water.

In conclusion, the above claim is nonsense (and I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard it). There’s no need to aerate the water, boil it, perform any rituals, or do rain dances around it. Just add it directly to the dough.

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