La Tartine

Taste

After Brasserie Bread, La Tartine is my second favourite bakery. Some of my favourites include Fruit ($5.95) 650g and Rye & Caraway ($5.35) 700g. This time we needed white bread, so picked up the White Campagne ($4.95). "campagne" actually means not a block loaf, and tastes pretty much like white bread, only more airy and slightly more dense. White bread is my least favourite bread, so I wasn’t overly excited, but it was still good nevertheless.

Ok, our next try was Wholemeal Tin ($4.95)

Rating - 7.5

Look

The White Campagne was a pretty oval loaf with white flour dusting, while the tin looks like it's from a tin!

Rating - 2

C-factor

830g for $4.95. Excellent value as far as boutique breads go.

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 11

Ingredients

wheat leaven, unbleached wheat flour (BFA), wholemeal wheat flour (BFA), rye flour (BFA), filtered water, unrefined atlantic sea salt.

Available At

Organic food store and farmer markets

Sonoma Bread

Taste

Well, the last time I had Sonoma, I didn’t enjoy the bread, so I had been reluctant to give it another go. In this case, I am glad I gave it another chance. The Rye Spelt was absolutely beautiful. A strong and golden crust encased some beautifully textured bread.

Rating - 8

Look

Golden outside with a dusting of flour, this was a light creamy brown colour on the inside.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

$6.50 for 600g. It’s on the expensive side in terms of boutique bread.

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 11

Ingredients

40% organic spelt flour ,60% organic rye flour, leaven (fermented organic spelt & rye flour & water), filtered water, sea salt

Available At

organic stores

Fosterton Farm Bakery Bread

Taste

Fosterton Farm's bio-dynamic and organic breads only sells at selected stores and markets around Northern NSW, so we felt it was our duty to try it out. There wasn't much bread available, but they were doing a roaring trade. We picked up a Linseed sourdough ($4.80), corn sourdough ($4.80) and farmhouse sourdough ($4.80). They actually taste the same, the only difference being the texture. The linseed is crunchy, the farmhouse traditional, the cornbread was my favourite in terms of texture, being a coarser grain. Certainly not as good as the usual stuff I'm used to, but better than the supermarket variety. A nice sourdough aroma and nice crust. They actually got better and better with age.

Also on offer were some sweet and savory offerings. We picked up the pumpkin, feta and rice parcel ($3) - which I am sure is very good for you. For something very hippy-like, it tasted alright. It's a little bland and the pastry not that great, but it's not altogether bad.

Rating - 7.5

Look

The breads were beautifully presented and the colour was fabulous. The same for their small offerings too. It's a small family run business who do all the baking, packaging and selling, so I was all in for that.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

It's not outrageous but not cheap either. For Newcastle, the price is great as there is no one else selling these, but in Sydney you get so much more choice.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 11

Ingredients

corn

Freshly milled organic maize meal and biodynamic wholewheat flour, rainwater, celtic sea salt and natural yeast ferment.

Available At

792 Fosterton Road
Dungog
NSW 2420
Phone (02) 4992 3408

Yarragon Country Style Bakery Potato Bread

Taste

There were quite a few appealing choices available, including some delectable looking hot cross buns, but I thought that since I was in potato country, I might as well get the potato bread. This soft load was baked to golden brown, with a very generous dusting of maize. The bread has a little nutty caramel taste, but no particular potato taste. This is very scrumptious!

Rating - 8

Look

As described, very beautiful. And getting this from a traditional bakery in a little country town makes it that much more special.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

$2.70 for a round loaf, is actually very good value!

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 12

Ingredients

Available At

Yarragon Country Style Bakery
127 Prices Hwy
Yarragon
VIC 3823
Phone (03) 5634 2722

Brasserie Bread

Taste

This is yet another great bread place in Sydney, and I'm not biased! They have won loads of awards, including Most Successful Bakery 2006 and Champion Loaf 2004 -2006 at the Royal Sydney Fine Food Show.I only lament that their shop is so far away! I managed to pick these babies up during the Sydney Food & Wine Fair.

The spelt sourdough was heavenly, the sourdough taste unmistakable, the spelt adding a hint of nuttiness, and with that grainy yet light texture on the inside, contrasting with a tougher outer, do you understand why I love bread yet?

The Sour Cherry was a lot more conventional. A Vienna shape loaf made with light sourdough studded with cherries, it's more dense and chewy. It tastes great toasted and served with some cottage cheese or ricotta.

Rating - Spelt - 8, Sour Cherry - 7.5

Look

Like hand-made rustic bread should. A dark brown outer, with a dusting of white flour. Simply stunning. I love their logo and their packaging too.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

$2.50 for the spelt and $5 for the sour cherry, but that's a Food & Wine Fair special because I sweet-talked them into giving me a discount.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - Spelt - 11.5, Sour Cherry - 10.5

Ingredients

Sour CherryOrganic unbleached flour, whole meal flour, water, malt, rye and wheat starter, yeast, Sour Cherries, Raisins, currant sugar & sea salt

Available At

Brasserie Bread Bakery Cafe
1737 Bontany Road
Banksmeadow
NSW 2131
Phone (02) 9666 6845
Website

Breadtop Bread

Taste

I've tried Breadtop many times before. All their stuff had been a bit hit and miss. Since I loved their Pork Floss loaf, I tried the Taro which wasn't as good. This time, we picked up the Coconut Loaf ($4.90). I think this was the worst of all the loaves. The coconut was too sweet, the bread was much harder than I expected, The coconut, like the rest of their loaves, came in big chunks in bits of the bread. This worked quite well with the Pork Floss and to a lesser extend the Taro, but for the coconut, it meant you were either eating very sweet filling or very plain bread. The combo of coconut and bread is not new, the problem is that it was perfected in the form of a cocktail bun, and there ain't no need to improve on perfection! You might ask, why would I choose this bread to start with? In my defence, it wasn't my choice, I would have stuck to their more unusual offerings.

Rating - 5

Look

Hey, this certainly looks more appealing than your run-of-the-mill cocktail bun, but I don't judge my food on their looks...much.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

For $4.90 I could buy 6 cocktail buns, I know which one I would choose.

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 7

Available At

Breadtop everywhere
Website

Infinity Sourdough

Taste

Those who know me will know that I looovve bread, especially sourdough. I can eat plain sourdough for a week. My latest find is the French Levain (mother/starter on French) Bread ($4.50) from Infinity. The outside has a charcoaled flavour, the inside has a "real" bread texture, none of that supermarket cardboard stuff. You can smell the intense aroma straight away. And just like good bread should be, it has a taste of its own.

I also tried the Olive Sourdough ($6.50). This one was even better, the salty sweetness of the fat juicy olives matched well with the slight nuttiness.

My new favourite is the Potato ($5.75), a purple-ish colour, with bits of walnuts adding crunch, a more crumbly texture,and that unmistakable sourdough taste.

Rating - French - 8, Olive - 9, Potato - 10

Look

The outside was a golden brown, the inside a very light brownish hue. No bleaching of any kind here.

The olive bread had just the right amount of olives, and was suitably darker.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

$4.50 might seem steep, but it compares favourably with other boutique breads and is actually excellent value for a huge loaf. Harris Farm only charged us $4 for the olive one too, bonus!

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - French - 12, Olive - 13, Potato - 14

Available At

225 Victoria St
Darlinghurst
NSW 2011
Phone (02) 9380 4320