September 30, 2012 - 1:16pm
Boiling Water
Hello, everyone,
I have an Easy French Bread recipe that includes the instruction to use water that has been boiled and then cooled to tepid. (thinking 110 F). The yeast has already been proofed in 1/2 cup of warm water with sugar. This would be for the remaining water in the recipe. My question is - why the instruction to first boil the water? Any good reason you can think of (other than purification)???
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If you have clean water, I see no reason to boil it. Is the recipe from a scout camping manual perhaps?
110°F is not tepid. tepid is slightly warm or luke warm.
For the yeast sake I wouldn't go above fevered body temperature or 104°F?
Boiling then cooling tap water would be one way of removing chlorine if it is present in the water. Chlorine may be detrimental to commercial yeast growth and almost certainly a problem for natural starters.
-Brad