Which flour is in which bread
Almond, millet, barley, oat, rye and whole wheat — what each one is, how it behaves in a loaf, and which of our breads it goes into.
Most bakeries name a bread after its shape. We name ours after the flour, because that is the part people are actually choosing between — and because it is a fact about the loaf rather than a claim about the eater.
Almond
Ground almonds, not a grain at all. There is no gluten in it, so it cannot build the elastic web that traps gas and gives wheat bread its open, airy crumb. What it gives instead is a close, tender, slightly moist texture and a high fat content that keeps a loaf soft for days. It is what our flatbread, sandwich bread, keto baguette and burger buns are built on.
Millet
A small, ancient grain, common across the Gulf and East Africa long before modern wheat. Mild, faintly sweet, slightly sandy on the tongue. It behaves like almond in that it will not build gluten structure on its own, so a millet loaf is denser and squarer than a wheat one. Our millet bread and millet cake both use it.
Barley
The oldest bread grain in this region by a wide margin. It has a little gluten but not the strong kind, so it makes a heavier, moister loaf with a distinctly nutty, almost malty flavour. It is in our barley bread, and it is the flour behind a good deal of our maamoul and kaak.
Oat
Soft, creamy, mild. Oat flour holds water well, which is why an oat loaf stays moist longer than most and why oats turn up so often in cookies — ours included. Worth knowing: oats are frequently milled on equipment shared with wheat, so oat flour is not automatically wheat-free.
Rye
Dark, sour, dense, and the traditional partner to a long ferment. Rye holds far more soluble fibre than wheat and behaves quite differently in dough — stickier, slower, less forgiving. It is worth the trouble for the flavour: our rye sourdough is the loaf people come back for.
Whole wheat
The whole grain — bran, germ and all — rather than the white centre. More fibre, more minerals and a shorter shelf life than white flour, because the oils in the germ eventually turn. It is in our organic whole wheat sourdough, the whole wheat baguette and buns, and a good part of the kaak.
What we are not saying
None of the above is a health claim. We are describing what a flour is and how it behaves in an oven. Whether any of it suits your diet, your blood sugar or a medical condition is a question for someone qualified to answer it — not for a bakery, and not for a label. Every product page names the flour it is made from, and carries the full ingredient list where we have written that up; where we have not yet, the page says so rather than filling the gap with something vague. Ask us and a person will send it.