My bread story

Being half French & all , bread is my religion. At my house in France the table is not set until a baguette has made an appearance, a meal isn't complete without at least one piece of bread eaten with cheese or as a vehicle for salad dressing and/or any meat juices, delicious gravy & other sauces. In France everyone & their dogs buys bread on a daily basis, at their local 'boulangerie', it is truly part of everyone's morning routine.

Bread is often discussed about, in my house anyway, we discuss its appearance, its taste, how long it will stay crunchy for, its delicious smell, it is all very serious.. We have our favourite boulangerie & keep it a secret, we know our favourite bread maker on the market on a first name basis, who am I kidding dad is basically best friends with the guy.

Boulangeries & Patisseries (they are often both at the same time) are often rated by their specialities, you'll go to this wonky looking one for their cloud like meringues, that particular one makes the best mille-feuille in town, & this little one in the corner makes a killer baguette. There's a boulangerie at every street corner, even the tiniest little country town will have one, trust me if they have one shop.. it will be a boulangerie.

Now, when I moved to England it became clear that bread wasn't flourishing at every street corner anymore. I had to face the cold reality that actually, finding a 'real' baguette was a bit like finding a needle in a hay stack. Oh, 'bread' you could find, and I emphasise on the inverted commas but real bread with a crusty exterior & soft fluffy interior was as rare as moon rocks.

I'd always complain & mock the fake bread everyone was eating & often waited patiently to visit my grandparents in the country to eat my grandmother's famous bread. She has been making her own bread for as long as I can remember, there is always a loaf rising by the Aga, & the perfect piece of toast waiting for you in the morning. When I think of their house, that wonderful dough smell coming from the oven is the first think that pops into my head.

Then I moved to Australia, and after years of living in England I had actually started reading about the nasty effects of eating wheat, which lead me to only eat bread occasionally, I would never refuse a juicy burger because of its soft buns, or a warm baguette covered in melted butter to go with my eggs but I always try and avoid eating it as much as possible because it doesn't make me feel very good anymore... which was a very sad realisation, but by not totally breaking up with bread I can sort of deal with it.

So where was I.. oh yes, I moved to Sydney & I discovered Gluten Free 'bread', which is far more common than it is in England, but I was never really satisfied with a store bought loaf so I decided to dabble into the world of gluten free bread making..

My clever friend Rosie came up with this genius low carb gluten free bread, which I've been making weekly since she introduced it to me (and to the rest of the world) It is not your typical bread but it definitely calms my cravings & is actually really good for me. I played around with it & sometimes I replace the flax meal with half buckwheat flour half psyllium husk (which works wonders on your digestive system) I also like to add seeds, pumpkin seeds in particular..